Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 28: The legislators of Jammu and Kashmir have yet not shown any seriousness in the ambitious scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched last year with the objective of ensuring holistic development of the rural areas. The scheme called– “Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana” was launched by the Prime Minister on October 11, 2014 on the birth anniversary of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan. The basic objective of the scheme is to keep the soul of rural India alive while providing its people with quality access to basic amenities and opportunities to enable them to shape their own destiny. Official sources told EXCELSIOR that on October 29, 2014, the Prime Minister wrote to all the States of the country including Jammu and Kashmir regarding implementation of the scheme. In the letter, Prime Minister laid emphasis on the need to create as many ‘Adarsh Grams’ as possible in the States. Mr Modi even requested the States to make earnest appeal to the Members of Legislative Assembly and Members of Legislative Council to identify suitable Gram Panchayats in accordance with the guidelines of the scheme and give necessary leadership for transforming them into ‘Adarsh Grams’. “But till date, none of the Legislators of J&K has taken this scheme seriously, which is evident from the fact that no recommendation has been made to the Rural Development Department of the State, which is the nodal department for the implementation of the scheme”, sources said. Though till December 2014 ending identification of villages under the scheme was not possible because of Assembly elections yet this exercise could have been made during the last two months when there was no impediment in identification of the villages for being taken up under the scheme, sources said. As there was no adherence to the appeal from the Prime Minister, his Principal Secretary again wrote to the Chief Secretary on February 4, 2015 seeking update with respect to the participation of MLAs/MLCs in the scheme, sources said, adding on February 17, 2015, Department of Rural Development of the Union Ministry wrote to the Administrative Secretary of Rural Development of Jammu and Kashmir bringing his attention towards the communiqué from the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister dated February 4, 2015. Non-seriousness of the J&K legislators is notwithstanding the fact that under this scheme more than 100 villages can be identified by all the MLAs and MLCs of the State for development as ‘Adarsh Grams’ and in this way they can play an important role in keeping the soul of rural India alive as per the spirit of the scheme. What to talk of other legislators, even the MLAs belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is ruling the country and is all set to be alliance partner in the State from tomorrow, have not come forward to identify the villages. When contacted, an officer of the Rural Development Department, on the condition of anonymity, said, “we cannot ask the Legislators to take the scheme seriously. They on their own must come forward so as to provide benefit of the scheme to their people”. He hoped that after formation of the Government, Chief Minister’s Office might take up the issue with them. According to the sources, even convergence of State schemes with SAGY for maximizing outcomes has yet not been finalized. “The guidelines in this regard were framed last month and sent to the concerned departments for comments, which are yet to be obtained”, they added. On the receipt of comments, the guidelines would be approved by the State Level Empowered Committee headed by the Chief Secretary, sources said.
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