New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday said the Indian development model has to be demand driven instead of the present supply-driven one and the aspirations of people in villages need to be fulfilled.
"There have been government schemes for rural development earlier also, but they have not brought about any transformation," Modi said launching the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (MP's model village scheme) here.
Under the scheme, members of parliament have to adopt three villages and develop them as model villages. Work on one of the villages has to be completed by 2016 and the other two by 2019.
Modi said: "We have to change our attitude. MPs should not think of any political activity when they go to the villages they adopt."
The prime minister said he would also adopt a village in Varanasi, the constituency from where he was elected to the Lok Sabha.
"I too have to select a village for Varanasi, have received the guidelines. Will go there, discuss and decide," he said.
Asking every MP to adopt a village and work for their development, Modi said: "Whichever party the MP belongs to, he or she has to keep working among people and spent a lot of his time to get work done for the government."
For the MPs elected from cities, the prime minister urged them to look at a village that is close to their city.
"MPs can select a village in their state...This is not a scheme about money. It is people driven and guided by people's participation, guided by the MPs," he said.
"Since independence, all governments have tried to remove poverty and uplift rural India. Schemes should be made according to changing times," Modi said adding new elements need to be added all the time.
"When a MP will work in villages, then the lacunae of all government schemes will come out and the system will begin to change," he said.
"We should create an atmosphere where people are proud of their villages," he said adding the aspirations of rural people are not less than those in urban areas.
Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari said it was due to the bad state of village infrastructure that the urban areas are also under pressure.
"If villages are developed then people will stop coming to the cities," he said.
The prime minister also released a booklet giving guidelines to MPs for developing the villages adopted.
