GUWAHATI, June 10 � Forty Gram Panchayats (GPs) have been chosen by 40 MPs of the North-east, including 21 from Assam, for developing those as model villages under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), which was launched in October 2014.
The break-up for the other North-eastern States is Arunachal Pradesh 3, Manipur 3, Mizoram 4, Meghalaya 2, Nagaland 2, Tripura 3 and Sikkim 2.
Briefing media persons at the National Institute of Rural Development today following a review meeting of the North-eastern States on the SAGY, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Birender Singh said that all the MPs of the Northeast had identified the GPs, and the State-level empowered committees had been notified for the purpose. In addition, 30 charge officers and 18 State teams of trainers have imparted training on the implementation of the programme.
All over India, 679 GPs have been identified by the MPs, achieving 86 per cent identification.
The objective of the programme is to create model villages through innovation in convergence, thereby motivating and inspiring neighbouring GPs. Under it, MPs are to develop three model villages by March 2019 � one model village by 2016 and thereafter, five model villages (one every year) are to be developed by 2024.
�This is a programme with a difference as it is not an infrastructure-centric scheme, but its aim is to facilitate the holistic development of villages with a clear focus on sustainability,� Singh said.
Singh said that 11 ministries/departments � Rural Development, Land Resources, MSME, Drinking Water, Power, MNRE, Youth Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Panchayati Raj, Consumer Affairs, and Health and Family Welfare � had amended guidelines to give priority to SAGY GPs in their schemes.
