Continuing with his interactive dialogue series – Samvaad @ Raj Niwas, Delhi Lt Governor(LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena on Tuesday held interaction with over 500 villagers representing 180 villages in the Capital.
The first of its kind engagement with the villagers at Raj Niwas aimed at seeking suggestions and ideas to chalk out a comprehensive plan of action for development of Delhi’s villages and thus making the villagers a key stakeholder in the development of urbanized as well as rural villages.
The interactive session was organized by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) under the ambitious “DilliGramodayAbhiyan” ideated and launched by the LG for development of Delhi’s villages, officials said.
The villagers led by the respective public representatives including the Members of Parliament — MeeenakshiLekhi, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri — lauded this initiative as a landmark in the development of Delhi’s villages and said this would emerge as a sustainable model of development before the entire country.
Saxena, who has already adopted five villages — Qutabgarh, Jaunti, Daurala, Rawta and Nizampur — said, all villages will be developed on the similar lines by the DDA with the help of Rs 800 crore transferred to the agency recently.
This, he said, is in addition to `480 crore of Village Development fund that has already been sanctioned for carrying out development works in 180 villages.
Saxena exhorted the villagers to identify the specific problems concerning their villagers and the tentative solutions so that they could be incorporated while finalizing the plan of action for each village.
Saxena announced that he will be staying overnight in identified villages of the City to get a first-hand account of the problems faced by the residence there.
Starting this month, District Magistrates will also visit and stay in the identified villages, hold consultations with the villagers and accordingly finalize the development works in the villages. This, he said, is in line with the dictum of “Government at the Doorsteps”.
While interacting with him, a number of village representatives rued that despite a lapse of several decades, their villages lacked even basic amenities like sewer network, roads, parks, schools, hospitals and clean drinking water among others. Some villagers from the urbanised villages complained of acute parking shortage.
Saxena lamented that in the past nine years, these villages were completely neglected and no futuristic development work was carried out all these years.
He exuded confidence that with the help of `800 crore and by engaging villagers in the development works, the Capital’s villages will undergo a facelift in the next few months.
Apart from the infrastructure boost in these villages, Saxena also urged the villagers particularly the youths and women to avail of government schemes to set up their own small manufacturing units that will boost village industries as also it will create employment opportunities locally.
He reiterated his commitment of creating world class sports infrastructure in Delhi’s villages and said coaches and trainers from the Indian Army and Indian Oil Corporation would soon be available to train the local youths who have exhibited their high potential by winning several medals in different sporting events recently.
