Residents of five Haryana villages, which have been adopted by President Pranab Mukherjee, can now have access to doctors at Rashtrapati Bhavan with upgraded facility of Ayush clinic being launched here today under the 'SmartGram' initiative.
The villages -- Alipur, Rojka Meo, Harchandpur and Taj Nagar, all in Gurugram district, and Dauhla in Nuh district -- were adopted by the President in July with an aim to develop them into smart villages using the existing resources on the patterns of development works in Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Besides, Ayush clinic and wellness centre, these villages will also have 'Water ATM' for supplying clean drinking water and skill training centre for youths to increase their employability.
The wellness centre has an e-doctor service which can be used for consultation with doctors in Rashtrapati Bhawan in times of need.
The inauguration of the upgraded facilities was done by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the presence of Omita Paul, Secretary to the President.
In Alipur, Khattar, along with Paul, inaugurated a training centre, a wellness centre and a common service centre. While the training centre imparts knowledge in various skills like sewing, computer, the wellness centre has people trained at Rashtrapati Bhawan in Ayush practice.
"Only distributing money to help people is not the solution to the real problem. Providing them with jobs and skills so that they can sustain themselves is necessary," Khattar said.
Khattar said that after the Narendra Modi government asked all Members of Parliament to adopt a village each under Adarsh Gram Yojna, the Haryana government exhorted Members of Legislative Assembly to do the same.
"But the number of villages adopted remained 105 while there are a total 6,700 villages in Haryana," he said.
"While we were stepping up our efforts in this direction, the President announced he would be adopting five villages of the state to develop them as SmartGrams," Khattar said, expressing happiness and gratitude to Mukherjee.
Paul, while thanking the Haryana government for its support to the SmartGram initiative, expressed hope that in days to come these villages will become the centre-point of the project.
"The journey from Smart Rashtrapati Bhawan to SmartGram began on July 2 when the President and the Chief Minister in a meeting decided to select these five villages for developing them as models.
"We have done whatever was possible in these four months. This is an experiment which shows that when the Centre, the state government, district authorities, panchayat, people from public and private sector and committed citizens work together, there is hardly anything that cannot be done," she said.
Paul said, "According to our definition, a SmartGram is one with human values, high-tech and prosperous village which provides all villagers a life of happiness, and peace."
A SmartGram has all necessary physical and social infrastructures along with a layer of information which helps in governance and delivery of governance, she noted.
She said the project envisages a development model for villages which could be easily and conveniently emulated.
Khattar inaugurated the upgraded infrastructure at UdyogKunj in Alipur where he also distributed keys of e-rickshaws to the locals. He also awarded cheques to the heads of four villages for their works in promoting sanitisation and cleanliness.
In Rojka Meo village, Khattar also inaugurated a water ATM, providing clean water for 40 paise a litre.
On July 2, Mukherjee had inaugurated the smart model village pilot project under which works were initiated to develop Dauhla, Alipur, Harichandpur and Taj Nagar in Gurgaon district and Rojka-Meo in Nuh district as Adarsh Gram.
Khattar said his government has established a skill development university -- Vishwakarma University-- in Palwal in Faridabad district.
'Saksham Yojna' launched on November 30 under which postgraduates without jobs will be provided 100 hours of work in a month against a payment of Rs 9,000.
The registration for it has began and the government also plans to launch such schemes for other levels of educated people like graduates and 10+2 pass-outs, he said.
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The focus of the Haryana government is on e-governance which not only saves time but also enhances efficiency, the chief minister said.
"We want to push for providing WiFi connectivity in villages so that people do not have to run from pillar to post for delivery of services," he said.
Highlighting the government's commitment to the cleanliness drive, he said a new scheme has been started in the state as per which the cleanest village in a block will be awarded once a month.
"126 villages each month in Haryana will get the award money under the scheme," he said.
He said the Haryana government would observe 2017 as the "Garib Kalyan Varsh" with a host of schemes to be rolled out next year for the poor.
