Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY)

Recently, the Union Minister of State for Rural Development has informed in Rajya Sabha about the various steps taken by the government for implementation of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY).

Steps have been taken by the Ministry for the successful implementation of Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY)

The Ministry has brought out a compilation of 127 Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored and 1806 State Schemes for convergence under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) which serves as a ready reckoner especially for the Members of Parliament, District and Village level officials about the different schemes for possible convergence at the GP level.
SAGY is revised periodically by the National Level Committee (NLC) on Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) chaired by Secretary, Rural Development to find bottlenecks, monitor, review, facilitate cross-learning and initiating remedial action where necessary including changes to the guidelines of their respective schemes/programmes.
The states have been advised to conduct the State Level Empowered Committee (SLEC) meetings headed by the Chief Secretary to assess the implementation process and to ensure seamless convergence of schemes among different State Government Departments.
An MP Dashboard is developed on SAGY website wherein MP centrality is more visible. Further, the concerns/views given in the comments section by the user from the GP will be visible to the Hon’ble MP, District Collector, Charge officer for necessary action.
The parameters for dynamic ranking of Gram Panchayats have been recently developed and placed on the portal so as to instil competition amongst the selected SAGY GPs.

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) is a village development scheme launched by union government in October 2014, under which each Member of Parliament will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.
The goal is to develop three Adarsh Grams by March 2019, of which one would be attained by 2016. Thereafter, five such Adarsh Grams (one per year) will be selected and developed by 2024.
The MPs would be allowed to identify a suitable Gram Panchayat for developing Adarsh Gram, other than his/her own village or that of his/her spouse.

Identification of Adarsh Gram

Gram Panchayat acts as the basic unit for development.
Lok Sabha Member selects a GP from within his/her constituency.
Rajya Sabha member selects a GP from the rural area of a district of his/her choice in the State from which he/she is elected.
Nominated member selects a GP from the rural area of any district in the country.
The Members involve with the community, create the Village Development Plan and arrange the required capitals particularly from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and philanthropies.
MPs also fill up critical gaps in the plan using the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds.

Challenges associated

So far, only 2,111-gram panchayats have been recognized under this programme and of that, 1,618 have prepared their development plans.
In many SAGY villages, the MPs failed to give any substantial funds from MPLADS.
The notion of SAGY has not infiltrated down to field officials due to lack of accountability and political will.
In some cases, where MPs have been active, some infrastructure growth has taken place, but the scheme has not made any noticeable impression.
Lesser convergence of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with MPLAD was seen in certain gram pachayats.
Apprehensions have also been raised over the quality of roads created under schemes of state governments and maintenance of rural roads under central Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

Way Forward

The idea behind the evolution of SAGY villages was to form model villages by guaranteeing convergence and merging of schemes and its proper implementation on priority basis.
There is a need for MPs to be more responsible towards the scheme.
SAGY gives focus to community participation and social mobilization of the village community can activate a chain of other development activities in the village.

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