In view of Simhastha-2016, as many as 357 villages around Ujjain will be developed as ‘smart villages’ so that pilgrims have a feel-good experience while passing through them. This was stated by Panchayats and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava at a workshop on ‘Smart Village-Smart Panchayat’ at Ujjain on Wednesday.
Bhargava said that under self-taxation scheme, a Panchayat will be given `40 lakh on taxation of `20 lakh. He said that the people of the selected villages should resolve to keep villages addiction-free, away from social evils, open-area defecation and avoid disputes and discords.
ACS Aruna Sharma informed that Smart Villages will welcome pilgrims to Simhastha with the spirit of ‘Guest is God’. This will carve a good image in the country and abroad. All basic facilities will be provided in these villages. All houses there will be pucca with toilet, piped water, connectivity with roads etc. These villages will also have school, Anganwadi, Panchayat buildings. She informed that there will be post office and bank within 5 km radius of every such village. She informed that organic and unorganic waste will be segregated under solid-liquid waste management in these villages. Plastic waste will be purchased at `18 per kg, which will be used in road construction.
MP Chintamani Malviya, MlAs Mohan Yadav, Dilip Singh Shekhawat, Anil Firojia, Satish Malviya and Bahadur Singh Chouhan and district Panchayat President Mahesh Parmar attended the workshop.
Of the 357 villages of Ujjain and Indore selected by Panchayats & Rural Development Department for development as Smart Villages, 67 are in Ujjain district, Mandsaur 67, Neemuch 32, Ratlam 73, Dewas 37, Shajapur 13, Agar-Malwa 16, Dhar 19 and 33 villages in Jhabua.