West Bengal's Malda launches participatory planning drive in border villages

Kolkata: The Malda district administration of West Bengal has launched 'Amar Gram Amar Kalpana', a participatory planning initiative aimed at promoting community-led development in villages along the India-Bangladesh border, an official statement said.

The programme, under the Centre's Vibrant Village Programme (VVP), seeks to directly involve residents in identifying development priorities and incorporating them into village action plans to ensure basic services and improve livelihood opportunities, it said.

As part of the initiative, an interactive session was held at Adampur in Muchia gram panchayat, where villagers shared their needs and suggestions with District Magistrate Rajanvir Singh Kapur and local MLA Gopal Chandra Saha.


The exercise, being conducted across 29 border villages from July 12 to 14, aims to gather community inputs for preparing need-based development plans.

Saha said direct engagement with villagers would ensure development projects reflect local needs.

"The Vibrant Village Programme aligns local aspirations with national priorities," he said.

Kapur said community participation is the key to effective planning and better development outcomes.

The district administration said 'Amar Gram Amar Kalpana' was conceived to advance the vision of Vibrant Village Programme, which seeks to transform border villages into vibrant settlements by treating them as the "first villages of India" rather than the country's last outposts.