PM scheme: Bittu refuses to adopt another village
Wednesday, 10/02/2016
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LUDHIANA: Annoyed with the lack of incentives and assistance to develop the village adopted under the Prime Minister’s Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu has refused to adopt another village for the second phase of the scheme.
Bittu, a Congress MP, had adopted Issewal village, 16 km from here, when the scheme was launched on October 11, 2014, but did not receive funds for the development of the village, he claims.
A letter from the Union ministry of rural development, asking the MPs to adopt another village for this year, prompted Bittu to take the decision.
The scheme was launched with a view to developing three ‘adarsh grams’ (model villages) by March 2019 of which one was supposed to be achieved by 2016. Thereafter, five such villages were supposed to be selected and developed by 2024.
But the scheme seems to be losing steam due to lack of funds with the MPs. “The project was meant to be implemented with the help of the already running central and state government schemes. However, even under those schemes, there was a lack of funds,” Bittu said.
He questioned the Centre’s intention, saying, “If the village was to be developed by the schemes already on, then what was the idea behind adopting a single village in a constituency?”
He claimed that at the time when the village was to be adopted, “the PMO put pressure on all MPs to adopt a village as most of them were not convinced with the scheme, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
The ministry of rural development, in a letter issued to Bittu, has asked him to submit the name of the second gram panchayat to the district magistrate by January 31.
