PM’s pet project witnessed a poor 56 per cent completion rate

New Delhi: Pradhan Mantri Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project aimed at encouraging Members of Parliament (MPs) to adopt at least one gram panchayat in their constituency and turn it into a ‘model village’, has witnessed only 50 per cent completion till July 2019. The scheme was launched in October 2014.

The national capital is the worst performer, as out of the 13 gram panchayats selected by its MPs under the SAGY, none of them has witnessed a single project undertaken for development and completion.

Apart from Delhi, states like Bihar, Assam, Maharashtra, Odisha, J&K, Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Karnataka have been identified as laggard states — which have completed on an average only up to 25 per cent to 50 per cent of panchayat projects.

According to information available with this newspaper, in the last five years since SAGY was launched, a total of 1,484 gram panchayats, adopted under the scheme, identified 68,407 projects to achieve the coveted status.

However, out of these 68,407 projects, till July 3, 2019, only 38,031 projects had been completed, which is a poor 56 per cent completion rate.

While Delhi had 13 gram panchayats identified for development, not a single project was identified or listed for development.

Among other states, Odisha identified had 941 projects under the selected gram panchayats for completion, out of which  only 170 have been completed till July, making it among the worst performers.

In Punjab, 815 projects were identified and only 257 have been completed.

Assam had listed 2,429 village development projects (VDPs) for completion, but only 580 of these have been finished.

Bihar had listed 4,817 project, out of which only 1,614 have been wrapped up. Maharashtra had identified 7,073 projects for development but could complete only 3,054 of them.

J&K had 917 projects listed for completion, out of which only 444 have been completed, while Karnataka had shortlisted 9,650 projects of which 5,085 have been finished till July 2019.

SAGY was launched on October 11, 2014 by Mr Modi with the objective of creating ‘adarsh grams’ across the country.

Under the project, all MPs had to turn  one gram panchayat under their constituencies, into a model village by 2016, and another two by 2019.
The gram panchayats identified by MPs were to prepare village development plans (VDPs).

The main purpose of preparing VDPs was to enable every poor household under these selected gram panchayats to come out of poverty.

These VDPs included prioritised time-bound activities to achieve overall progress of the selected gram panchayat or village.

However with several states managing to complete only up to 50 per cent of projects identified under VDPs, the whole purpose of creating model villages under SAGY in a time bound manner, seems to have lost its significance.