Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar on Monday asked the State MlAs to constitute an 11-member committee of youth in the villages adopted by them so as to ensure their participation in the development of villages.
Besides, he also asked them to constitute Social Audit Committees in these villages. The committees would comprise of village sarpanch, panch, former sarpanch and other prominent people of the village and would monitor the expenditure on various development works.
Speaking at the orientation programme of Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana here, the Chief Minister said that the MlAs would also ensure that the meeting of gram sabhas was held at regular intervals and the decisions taken in the meeting were properly endorsed.
So far, only 43 of the total 90 MlAs have come forward to adopt a village each under the Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana ,launched a year back in Haryana.
The Chief Minister said that this being not a political initiative, all Members of legislative Assembly should become a part of this scheme and contribute towards rural development irrespective of any political party.
Cabinet Ministers, Ministers, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and MlAs participated in the Orientation Programme held here on Monday. While all Congress MlAs gave a miss to the orientation programme, two INlD MlAs were present at the programme, as per the information.
While laying emphasis on the need for maintaining the balance of population in rural and urban areas, Manohar lal said that there is a need to evolve a formula for ensuring the development of rural areas at par with urban areas so that migration of people to urban areas could be checked.
He said that our soul resides in the villages and if we want to see our country and state happy and prosperous, first of all we have to make our villages prosper.
The Chief Minister added that the main aim of the Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana is to ensure the socio-economic development of villages by ensuring the active participation of people.
Under this scheme, each MlA would have to develop three villages by September 2019 in which, first village would be developed up to March 2017, second up to September 2018 and third up to September 2019. The MlAs would have to choose first village up to December 1, 2015, second up to May 1, 2016 and third up to November 1, 2017.
He said that villages with population ranging between 3,000-7,000 in ground areas and between 1,000-3,000 in hilly areas could be taken up by the MlAs for development.
He added that it is not mandatory for the MlAs to choose village from his own constituency. They could opt for villages of their choice from other constituencies also.
Besides the implementation of Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana and Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, prominent personalities who are the residents of the village but reside in other parts of country and even abroad would also be asked to adopt their village. Similarly, educational institutes like universities, colleges, social organizations, NGOs and religious organizations could also be roped in for this purpose, said the Chief Minister.
He also asked the MlAs to identify such persons and organizations in their respective assembly constituencies and persuade them to adopt villages.
While describing the barter system as one of the negative aspects in our constitutional system, he said the people feel that their responsibility is over after casting their ballot and they hoped that the elected representatives would do the rest themselves. He said that this thinking has to be changed.
The Chief Minister said that we have to inculcate feeling of mutual cooperation among the people so as to ensure their participation in the development of villages.
Earlier, Chief Minister released the brochure of Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana and Swa-Prerit Adarsh Gram Yojana.
Speaking on this occasion, Agriculture and Development and Panchayats Minister OP Dhankar said that it is a matter of concern that the population in urban areas has been constantly increasing while the rural areas have witnessed a sharp decline in the population as since Independence not much attention was paid towards the development of villages.
He said that if we provide all basic facilities in the villages, we could check the migration of people to urban areas.
He urged the MlAs to develop the villages adopted by them under the Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana and develop these villages as role models for other States also.
At the programme, Additional Chief Secretary, Development and Panchayats Navraj Sandhu gave detailed presentation on Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana.