As many as 661 MPs have so far adopted a village under the Saansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 11 last year with an aim of overall development of rural areas.
Of them, 485 are from the lok Sabha and 176 are from the Rajya Sabha, Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh told Rajya Sabha on Monday.
“We have received very good response to the scheme and 84 per cent of the MPs which is 661 Members have shown keen interest in the scheme and have selected gram panchayats,” he said during the Question Hour.
The scheme is a rural development programme broadly focussing on development of villages, including in social and cultural spheres.
Responding to a concern that the guidelines for adopting a village contain conflicting provisions regarding composition and constitution of national level committees overseeing implementation, the Minister said the differences could be because of the ‘ready reckoner and frequently asked
question booklet’ which was released later.
The booklet differs from the guidelines with regard to the composition of the committee headed by the Rural Development Minister.