661 MPs have adopted villages for development under Saansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana: Government

NEW DELHI: As many as 661 MPs have so far adopted a village under the Saansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 11 last year with an aim of overall development of rural areas.

Of them, 485 are from Lok Sabha and 176 are from Rajya Sabha, Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh told Rajya Sabha today.

"We have received very good response to the scheme and 84 per cent of the MPs which is 661 Members have shown keen interest in the scheme and have selected gram panchayats," he said during the Question Hour.

The scheme is a rural development programme broadly focussing on development of villages, including in social and cultural spheres.

Responding to a concern that the guidelines for adopting a village contain conflicting provisions regarding composition and constitution of national level committees overseeing implementation, the Minister said the differences could be because of the 'ready reckoner and frequently asked question booklet' which was released later.

The booklet differs from the guidelines with regard to the composition of the committee headed by the Rural Development Minister.

He said the scheme guidelines are being amended to provide for nomination of MPs to committee headed by the RD Minister. Till then the existing guidelines will continue to be in operation.

The scheme implementation guidelines provide that for overseeing implementation, there would be two national level committees. One will be headed by the RD Minister and the other will be headed by the secretary of the Ministry.