New Delhi: Over one third of the projects under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet village scheme — Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) — are yet to even start after nearly five years of its launch, but his government believes the scheme is “path-breaking” to which members of Parliament have responded “very enthusiastically”.
Announced by PM Modi in his first Independence Day speech in 2014, SAGY was launched later that year. Under the scheme, MPs are supposed to adopt villages and develop them as “model” villages. The idea was that each MP would adopt three villages each in three phases between 2014 and 2019, and five villages between 2019 and 2024.
“Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, a path-breaking initiative in rural development, was launched by Hon’able Prime Minister on 11 October 2014…Hon’able Members of Parliament have responded very enthusiastically to the call of Hon’able Prime Minister and are guiding 1,475 SAGY Gram Panchayats across the country towards time-bound holistic development,” said the Rural Development Ministry in its latest state performance and action plan report.
The ministry, which oversees the scheme, has also called the scheme a “pioneering approach in rural development”.
Its own data, however, shows 35 per cent of the projects planned under the scheme have not even started so far, while 13 per cent are in progress, which means just around half or 52 per cent have been completed.
Overall, SAGY has seen a dismal response from MPs, who started off on a positive note in the first phase, but by the third phase, just over one third of them adopted villages.
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The scheme’s contours
SAGY, a scheme that has been pushed by Modi himself, says each Lok Sabha MP has to adopt a village (gram panchayat being the unit) in her/his constituency for all-round development using existing resources and rural schemes as well as his/her MPLADS fund.
Rajya Sabha MPs can select a village in any district of the state from where they have been elected.
Each MP is free to identify any village to be developed as a ‘model village’, except his or her own village and that of his/her spouse. According to the target, every MP was to develop one village by 2016 and two more by 2019, and five until 2024.
The scheme has no separate allocation and MPs have to rely on convergence and better implementation of existing schemes as well as their MPLADS funds to take it forward — one of the biggest criticisms of the scheme.
“Under SAGY, ‘soft’ development of adopted villages has been significant such as school enrollments and better access to government schemes, PDS as well as healthcare. However, visible development like infrastructure has not been as much. This is also because it has no separate funds. We are working to see if some form of critical gap funding can be made possible,” said a ministry official, who did not wish to be named.
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West Bengal, Odisha among worst performers
According to the ministry’s data, states such as West Bengal and Odisha — both ruled by opposition parties — are the worst performers with 100 per cent and 76 per cent of projects yet to even start, respectively.
Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are among the best performers — with 90 per cent, 85 per cent, 80 per cent and 76 per cent of projects being completed, respectively.
To be sure, the number of villages adopted and projects planned in each state are vastly different — from 268 villages and over 6,000 projects in Uttar Pradesh to just nine villages and 61 projects in West Bengal.
Meanwhile, it isn’t just the statistics around project completion that raises serious questions about SAGY, but also a sharp dip in participation of MPs.
In its first phase, 500 of 543 Lok Sabha MPs and 203 of 245 Rajya Sabha MPs had adopted villages. In the second phase, the numbers came down to 364 Lok Sabha and 133 Rajya Sabha MPs, and by the third phase, only 225 Lok Sabha MPs and 58 Rajya Sabha MPs had adopted villages.
Considering the BJP had 282 members in the Lok Sabha in 2014 and in the Rajya Sabha, the party has been the single largest bloc, it shows that even BJP MPs were shunning the scheme. Even Modi’s cabinet ministers in the previous government had stopped picking villages.
The PM, however, had adopted one village each in all the phases.
Despite the poor response, the government plans to continue with the scheme for the next five years.
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