Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the 'Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana' promising to bring a demand driven model for village development and expressed confidence that the scheme with its "constructive politics" will have a "viral effect" across the nation.
Under the programme, each MP will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.
Elaborating his views on development, he said, "A debate is going on for long. Whether it should be from top to bottom or from bottom to the top. Discussions do help. But those who are working have to begin work somewhere...The talk about bottom to top and top to bottom will continue in the academic world."
"We want to work. We want to see whether we can bring change through public participation... I am not claiming that I will change the situation all of a sudden...This schemes is not the ultimate. Changes and improvement will come in this with the passage of time," he said.
Noting that ever since the country got freedom, all governments worked for rural development in their own way, he added "this effort has to go on continuously incorporating changes according to changing times.
Quoting socialist icon Jai Prakash Narayan, the Prime Minister said that while democracy and politics were inseparable, damage was often caused by bad politics.
"This scheme would inspire a movement towards good politics, with MPs acting as facilitators and catalytic agents," the Prime Minister said.
Referring repeatedly to Mahatma Gandhi and JP, he said the scheme under which each MP will take responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in one village by 2016 and three villages by 2019, is "not a scheme about money".
He said though government schemes were working across the country, in each state there were a few villages that the state could be proud of.
"This shows that there was something extra that the leadership and people in those villages had done, beyond government schemes. This something extra is the spirit behind Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana," the Prime Minister said.
"The model of our development has been supply driven. Schemes are made in Delhi and Lucknow and are pushed further. We want to change it from supply driven to demand driven," he said.
