Cold response from legislators to Adarsh Gram Yojana

By Kartik Lokhande

In the second half of the month of May earlier this year, Rural Development Department launched with fanfare ‘Aamdar Adarsh Gram Yojana’ taking a cue from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative ‘Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana’. Under the State’s scheme, MLAs and MLC were to adopt and a develop a village each. However, almost seven months have passed by and more than half of the legislators in Maharashtra have failed to complete the process for adopting a village.

Of course, there are a few honourable exceptions like Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister, who has adopted village Fetri in Nagpur district. However, there are many legislators including ministers and prominent leaders of the Opposition parties who are yet to submit a proposal for adopting a village. In fact, sources said, many have not even evinced interest in adopting a village. Interestingly, though many MLAs and MLCs are from urban centres including cities like Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nagpur, Nashik, the scheme encourages them to adopt a village of their choice so that those could be developed as model villages.

“The idea behind Aamdar Adarsh Gram Yojana was to expand the coverage of various welfare schemes and developmental initiatives of the Government, through focused approach and active participation of legislators. The department had asked the legislators to submit their proposals with name of the villages they would like to adopt by August 15. But, less than half of over 350 legislators have submitted their proposals as yet,” said an official familiar with the scheme.

As per the list compiled by the Rural Development Department, at the end of October 2015, a total of 224 legislators (members of Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly) had not submitted proposal under Aamdar Adarsh Gram Yojana. This list included many big names like Haribhau Bagde, Speaker of the Assembly; Vasant Daokhare, Deputy Chairman of the Council; Subhash Desai, Industries Minister; Vinod Tawde, Education Minister; Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Leader of Opposition in Assembly; Ajit Pawar, senior NCP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister; Ramdas Kadam, Environment Minister; Eknath Khadse, Revenue and Agriculture Minister; Diwakar Raote, Transport Minister; and a host of others from all parties.

When the list was brought to the notice of the legislators concerned, many of them started preparing and submitting the proposals. For instance, a proposal for adopting a village ‘is in the pipeline’ as far as Haribhau Bagde is concerned. Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, Chairman of Legislative Council; Prithviraj Chavan, former Chief Minister; and others have submitted their proposals already. Still, sources said, Rural Development Department is following up the matter consistently with the legislators who are yet to submit their proposals. For, added an official, the proposals are to be gathered before the Budget Session of State Legislature.

Still, there appears to be reluctance especially among legislators elected from Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Latur, and Jalgaon. As far as Nagpur district is concerned, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has adopted Fetri village. Taking cue from him, Hingna MLA Sameer Meghe has adopted Adegaon, Ramtek MLA D Mallikarjun Reddy has adopted Chargaon, West Nagpur MLA Sudhakar Deshmukh has adopted Pardi  in Nagpur Rural tehsil; MLC Prof Anil Sole has adopted Ronga in Tumsar tehsil; and so on. Sudhakar Deshmukh told ‘The Hitavada’ that he would be monitoring the progress of works proposed in Pardi soon after the winter session of State Legislature was over on December 23.

The scheme was launched with an intention to make the villages self-reliant and to develop them so as to release the pressure on urban centres. Apart from their local area development fund, the legislators will get additional funds from the State Government for development of adopted villages. Under the Aamdar Adarsh Gram Yojana, each legislator has to develop three villages with focused approach by July 2019. However, a legislator cannot select his/her or his/her spouse’s native village. The scheme entails convergence mode of implementation with focus on improving education, health, sanitation, water supply, and other facilities as well as on empowerment and development of women, youth, and children. 

(13-12-15)