New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana on the occasion of birth anniversary of Jai Prakash Narayan, as he had declared in his maiden Independence Day speech.
Launching the ambitious scheme, Modi said that if nearly 800 MPs develop three village each by 2019, around 2500 villages will be covered.
Modi said that he will also select a village from his constituency Varanasi.
"I will also select a village in Varanasi area. Guidelines have been received. I Will discuss and decide," said Modi.
"Country's development model has been supply driven. We want to change it by making it demand driven.Let us take interest and create an atmosphere where every person is proud of his or her village," added Modi.
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 lot of his time to get work done for the government."
For the MP's 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.
Modi aims to keep the tradition of rural India alive while providing people with quality access to basic amenities and opportunities to enable them to shape their own destiny.
Adarsh Gram aims to ensure 100 per cent access to health, education, sanitation, schools, toilets, libraries and smart schools.
It is an ambitious village development project under which each MP will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.
Inspired by the principles and values of Mahatma Gandhi, the scheme places equal stress on nurturing values of national pride, patriotism, community spirit, self-confidence and on developing infrastructure.
All the Members of Parliament are to adopt a village each and cater to its needs. Gram panchayat would be the basic unit for development. It will have a population of 3000-5000 in plain areas and 1000-3000 in hilly, tribal and difficult areas.
In districts where this unit size is not available, gram panchayats approximating the desirable population size may be chosen. If each MP adopts three villages, the scheme will be able to develop 2,379 gram panchayats over the next five years.
