No village from Delhi has been adopted under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said today in remarks that raised question marks over the announcement of adoption of villages by at least three BJP MPs.
However, one of the ruling party MPs -- Ramesh Bidhuri, who had adopted Bhatti Mines village under the scheme in October last year, expressed surprise at the minister's remarks saying he has indeed adopted the village and work is already going on there.
"No Delhi MP has adopted any village under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana so far. We do not have any such communication to say that any Delhi MP has adopted any village," Singh told reporters at a press conference here after a review meeting of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
He was replying to a question as to whether it was true that no village has been adopted under the scheme in Delhi because MPs are finding it difficult to find rural villages in their constituency.
Under the scheme only rural villages can be adopted and not the urban ones.
Interestingly, BJP MPs Meenakshi Lekhi, Ramesh Bidhuri and Mahesh Giri had adopted one village each -- Pilanji, Bhaati Mines and Chilla respectively -- under the scheme between September and November last year.
When asked if it was true that most of Delhi MPs cannot adopt the scheme as their constituencies do not have villages, the minister said that he has given such MPs a list of villages in Delhi, which can be adopted but since they fall outside their constituencies, they do not want to do it.
He parried direct answers as to whether such a problem calls for a change as there is a fault in the design of the scheme.
When contacted, Bidhuri said, "I have adopted Bhati village under the scheme declared by the PM from Red Fort. I don't know what the minister is talking about. Thirty per cent work has been already completed here. Although there was a delay in five months in adopting the village but that was due to other reasons.
