Nayagarh: Fifteen more villages in Nayagarh district have been included in Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) under which Rs 6 crore has been sanctioned for carrying out a slew of developmental initiatives, as per a report. Reports said the administration has identified 15 villages while three other villages have already been included in the scheme.
Bolabani under Sadar block and Surkabadi under Nuagaon block have been declared as Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram while Chadeimara under Nuagaon block is yet to be declared as a model village under the scheme.
As per guidelines, the state and Union governments provide Rs 40 lakh to develop various modern facilities in selected villages. A district level committee of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe welfare department held a meeting recently and approved a grant of Rs 6 crore for 15 villages.
As per guidelines of PMAGY, the villages having a population more than 500 (as per the 2011 census) and about 50 per cent of their population belonging to the scheduled tribes will be eligible for this scheme. Once included in the scheme, these villages will be provided with facilities like drinking water, provision of sanitation, education, social security, road connectivity, electricity and renewable energy, telecommunication, agriculture, livelihood creation and skill development centres.
The state government provides Rs 20 lakh as its matching grant while the Centre allocates an equal amount. After the villages are developed with 10 basic facilities, they are declared as PMA Gram. Village level committees have been formed to utilise the funds to carry out development projects under the supervision of sarpanchs, ward members and officials of the lines departments. Meanwhile, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Welfare department has got a list of villages that would be included under the scheme.
In the first phase, three villages of the district were included in the scheme while two of them were declared model villages. In the second phase, 15 more villages were included in PMAGY. The villages are Lakhanpur, Guanda, Pathadwar, Gadiasahi, Bijaynagar, Routpadapatana, Ostia, Chhadamula, Chhamundia, Patanda, Kandapada, Ambapada, Nandighosepur, Burupaju and Pathuria.
A number of projects have been approved and an outlay of Rs 6 crore has been sanctioned. Collector Poma Tudu has underscored the need for expediting the works and making provision of garbage pits in all these villages. Officials of line departments are on their toes to start the groundwork. As per provision, central teams may make surprise visits to the villages to take stock of ongoing developmental works.