NEW DELHI: The nominated elders in Indian Parliament have miles to go before they sleep. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘develop a model village’ scheme, very popular among MPs, has failed to see a response from MPs like Rekha, Javed Akhtar, K Parasaran, H K Dua and Mrinal Miri.
While most of the MPs have already zeroed down a village each for its development, many of the nominated members of Rajya Sabha are yet to make the move. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Sachin Tendulkar and K T S Tulsi have already begun developing their respective villages. Rekha, Akhtar, Parasaran, Dua and Miri, all nominated members, are yet to adopt their villages. They are adoption-shy.
Cine superstar Rekha, who took oath as member of Rajya Sabha on May 15, 2012 could not be contacted. Rekha has neither adopted a village under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana nor a district. According to Rajya Sabha records, Rekha has not spent a single paisa from Members of the Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund she was nominated to the house of elders two years ago.
Noted lyricist Javed Akhtar, who took oath as Rajya Sabha member in April 2010, could not be contacted for his comments. Among Rajya Sabha members, Jaya Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Ram Gopal Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Digvijaya Singh, Janardhan Dwivedi, KC Tyagi, Jairam Ramesh , Renuka Chaudhury and Derek O Brien were yet to adopt a village.
Among the states, West Bengal is at the bottom. Only three MPs have come forward to adopt villages in West Bengal. Interestingly, Bihar, Maharastra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Kerala, Haryana and Assam are leading the list with all the MPs from these states having adopted the villages under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. Uttar Pradesh is not lagging behind. Out of 80 MPs, 76 members of Lok Sabha have adopted villages. Similarly, In Tamil Nadu, out of 39 MPs, 38 MPs have adopted the scheme. According to Rural Development Ministry records, out of 543 Lok Sabha members, 465 have adopted villages and out of 243 Rajya Sabha members, including nominated, 165 members have adopted villages. Among the states, West Bengal is lagging behind in the implementation of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. According to the Rural Development Ministry records, out of 42 Lok Sabha members, only three members have adopted the village. All the 16 members of Rajya Sabha have not adopted any village.
Under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, a Lok Sabha member would have to choose a village in his or her respective constituency other than his or her own village or that of a spouse. Rajya Sabha members can select a village from districts of their choice within the state they represent while nominated MPs can choose a village from any district in the country. In the case of urban constituencies, an MP can choose a village from nearby constituency.
According to the guidelines, a village selected for developing as a model village under the scheme would require a population of 3,000-5,000 in the plains and 1,000-3,000 in hilly, tribal and difficult areas.
After the selection of the villages by the MPs, the respective deputy commissioners would constitute monitoring committees with the respective block development officers as the charge officer for implementing the scheme in the selected villages. An action plan would be prepared for implementing the development programmes in selected villages and by June 2015, the scheme would be implemented in the village. One village will be developed into a model one by 2016. Two more villages will be taken up under the scheme by 2019. Among the 12 nominated members of Rajya Sabha, apart from Sachin Tendlkar, Mani Shanakar Aiyar, Ashok Ganguly, Balchandra Mungekar, Jayashree, KTS Tulsi, Anu Agha have adopted villages.
Mrinal Miri and Parasaran say that they will soon adopt a village. “I am not well so I have not done it so far. However, I am sure I will be adopting a village in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh soon,” Mrinal Miri told the Sunday Standard. Legal luminary Parasaran is in search of village he could adopt. May he succeed.