 "As MPs lose interest, government approaches corporate India to Adopt a Village")
The rural development ministry is scheduled to hold 10 regional corporate social responsibility conclaves next month, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Adopt a Village scheme, The Economic Times reported. With Members of the Parliament slowly losing interest in the scheme, the government is now focusing on corporate funding, that will help take the initiative forward.
The regional conclaves, which will begin with Mumbai, are aimed at connecting MPs and district administration officials with willing corporates, whose investment in the scheme will develop model villages under the ambit of the scheme. The government has reportedly identified a total of 340 projects across states for funding under the adopted villages scheme.
A senior official from the rural development ministry was quoted as saying, "There are projects which require funding but they are not really covered under any government scheme. This is where corporate sector can step in. So we have identified projects and developed proposals for corporate players."
The Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana or Adopt a Village scheme was launched by Modi on August 15, 2014. The scheme aimed at encouraging MPs to adopt a village of their choice and develop it into a model village. Under the initiative, the government envisaged the development of 2,200 villages into model villages, during the span of three phases, scheduled to end in 2019. MPs adopted 695 villages during the first phase of the scheme.
As the initiative progressed into its second phase however, it began to lose lustre - with only 51 MPs adopting villages, mainly due to the lack of funds, the newspaper reported.
As per the report, the conclave in Mumbai will be followed by similar conferences in Lucknow, Gujarat, Chandigarh and other regional centres.
