Surely, the PM and his team will assess the role or contribution, and inactivity of MPs.
At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving special importance to comprehensive changes in the lives of villages for economic progress, a review of the implementation of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (Member of Parliament’s model village scheme) should also take place.
The goal of the Adarsh Gram Yojana is to create developed model gram panchayats throughout the country. This is a unique scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development, where for the first time, the leadership, capacity, commitment, and energy of Members of Parliament are directly utilized for development at the gram panchayat level. The scheme was launched on 11 October 2014.
The objective of the scheme is to improve the quality of life in rural areas. It requires the MPs to develop their constituency’s village as an ideal village. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched this scheme from the Science Building in New Delhi and issued guidelines to all Members of Parliament. In the first phase, each Member of Parliament was instructed to resolve to develop one village in their electoral area by 2016 and two more villages by 2019. By March 2019, the goal was to develop at least three villages as model villages. After that, the aim was to develop five such model villages each year until 2024, focusing on basic amenities in villages along with agriculture, animal husbandry, small-scale industries, employment, etc.
The goal of the Adarsh Gram Yojana is to establish certain values in villages and among their residents so that the villages can become models for others. This includes ensuring the participation of all sections of society in all aspects related to village life. Particularly in making decisions related to governance, adhering to the principle of Antyodaya—making the “poorest and weakest person” in the village achieve good outcomes, affirming gender equality, ensuring respect for women, guaranteeing social justice, upholding the dignity of labour, and fostering a sense of community service and voluntarism.
In addition to this, promoting a culture of cleanliness, living in harmony with nature, ensuring a balance between development and environmental sustainability, preserving and promoting local cultural heritage, enhancing mutual cooperation, promoting self-help and self-reliance, fostering peace and harmony in the village community. Bringing transparency, accountability, and honesty in public life, nurturing local self-governance, and adhering to the values inherent in the fundamental rights and duties of the Indian Constitution are also desired.
The successes under the scheme in some states, parliamentary constituencies, and among certain Members of Parliament are truly commendable. According to an official report, the scheme has been 70% successful from 2014 to 2019, meeting its goals. However, in the second phase from 2019 to 2023, progress has been around 40%. States like Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, and Telangana have done exceptionally well. Some MPs have revolutionized village life in a dedicated manner. For instance, Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha adopted the village of Kaongthong in the East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya on 15 August 2019. With the help of the local residents, he developed it into the best tourism village in India today.
The Standing Committee of the Home Ministry, the Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development, Opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and former President Murmu have visited the village. Before 2019, people did not even know about this village in Shillong. Later, in a similar manner, on 15 August 2023, he adopted the marginalized village of Suja in Begusarai. Seeing the difficulty in implementing government schemes in a short time, MP Rakesh Sinha initiated the development of the village through public participation. Before 2023, he did not attend private inaugurations. But after adopting Suja, he started seeking assistance from the administration and other institutions through public collaboration.
He started seeking help for Suja in each inauguration, not in monetary terms but in the form of materials, promoting transparency. Some provided sand, while others contributed cement. Today, two large community buildings, one for men and one for women, have been constructed. Construction of a temple is underway. Two hundred streetlights have been installed, and 100 more are to be added. Approximately 20 toilets and five bathing facilities are ready. The construction process for a school building is also in progress. A pledge has been made to provide free education by accommodating 21 children in a school hostel.
It is interesting that in the same area, another MP, Bhola Singh, had previously adopted the village Simaria, but people complain that he did nothing. Begusarai MP Giriraj Singh is the Minister for Rural Development, and the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is under this ministry. However, he himself has not been able to develop any village. The government has set up a committee of MPs to evaluate the unimplemented work of the Adarsh Gram Yojana, which is chaired by the Minister for Rural Development. However, not a single meeting of this committee has been held so far.
Until seven years after the ambitious launch of the Adarsh Gram Yojana by the Modi government, work had not commenced on more than three-fourths of the projects. According to the data available on the website of the Member of Parliament’s Adarsh Gram Yojana as of October 9, 2021, the selection of 2,314 gram panchayats has been made under the scheme. Out of the planned 82,918 projects for rural development, 53,352 projects and activities have been completed, while work is in progress on 6,416 rural development projects.
According to the data available on the scheme’s website, the implementation of the projects under this scheme has been good in Tamil Nadu (94.3%), Uttar Pradesh (89.8%), Gujarat (84.2%), Chhattisgarh (79.67%), Karnataka (76.68%), Uttarakhand (76.66%), Kerala (69.78%), Madhya Pradesh (68.4%), Manipur (67.57%), Mizoram (66.32%), Himachal Pradesh (65.25%), and Haryana (61.16%). In these states, more than 60% of the work on rural development projects under the Member of Parliament’s Adarsh Gram Yojana has been completed.
Under this scheme, in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Bihar, Punjab, and Assam, less than 60% of the work has been completed. Specifically, in Rajasthan, 55.06%, in Jharkhand, 52.63%, in Telangana, 50.38%, in Andhra Pradesh, 45.46%, in Odisha, 43.7%, in Maharashtra, 42.11%, in Bihar, 38.68%, and in Punjab, 36.97% of the rural development work has been completed under the scheme. Surely, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team will now assess the role or contribution, as well as the inactivity, of Members of Parliament in such situations. Other political parties should also review the work of their MPs.