INVC,
Sriganganagar ,,
Rajasthan,,
The “Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana” (PMAGY) was launched at Village 18 BB, Block Padampur, District Sriganganagar, Rajasthan today. With this, the state of Rajasthan becomes the first state of the country to launch this scheme.
Launching the scheme, the Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment, Shri Mukul Wasnik read out the Message sent by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on this occasion. In his message, the Prime Minister said that the scheme which aims at the integrated development of one thousand villages where a majority of the population belongs to the scheduled castes, through a convergence and gap filling mechanism, represents a significant initiative towards the development and empowerment of deprived sections in our society.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Wasnik called upon the functionaries of the State Government and Panchayati Raj institutions to work in a coordinated manner to realize the vision of an “Adarsh Gram” in all the 225 selected villages of the state.
The Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Shri Ashok Gahlot presided over the function. Dr. C.P. Joshi, Union Minister for Rural Development & Panchayati Raj also attended the function.
Shri Wasnik commended the preparatory work done by the State Government to ensure that the PMAGY takes off successfully in Rajasthan. He said that the successful implementation of the Pilot Phase of the scheme in Rajasthan would pave the way for its successful execution in all the 44,000 Scheduled Caste majority villages of the country.
The pilot scheme has been taken up for implementation in five States of which four are Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (225 villages in each state) and Assam (100 villages). The pilot scheme will be implemented in two districts of Rajasthan viz.Sri Ganganagar & Hanumangarh. In Bihar, all the 225 villages selected for pilot phase are in Gaya district whereas in Tamil Nadu, the same number of selected villages are in the districts of Cuddalore and Tiruvarur. In Assam, 100 scheduled castes majority villages which have been selected for the pilot phase are in the districts of Nowgaon and Morigaon.
It may be recalled that the Centre has released a sum of Rs. 55.54 crore to the States of Assam, Bihar and Rajasthan under the the pilot phase of the centrally sponsored “Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana” (PMAGY). A preliminary grant has been released to Tamil Nadu in anticipation of receipt of complete proposals. The implementation of the Pilot Scheme was approved in March this year for integrated development of 1,000 villages in the country, each with more than 50% Scheduled Castes (SC) population.
PMAGY aims to achieve all-round, integrated development of selected villages primarily, through convergent implementation of all relevant Central and State schemes in them, and by meeting needs through provision of “gap-filling” funds for which central assistance will be provided @ Rs. 10 lakh per village, with State Government also expected to make a suitable, preferably matching, contribution.
Based on the complete proposals received from Bihar, Rajasthan and Assam, admissible Central assistance to these States has been released. While Bihar and Rajasthan have been allocated a sum of Rs. 22.72 crore each for implementing the scheme in selected 225 villages in each State, Assam has been allocated Rs. 10.10 crore for 100 villages.
