Model village scheme: What if other villages get upset, fear MPs

, Nov 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced about his plan of the parliamentarians and legislators adopting a

for

during his maiden Independence Day speech this year. The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana was also launched in October and Modi expressed hope that the scheme with its "constructive politics" would have a strong effect across the country.

Under the programme, each MP is supposed to take responsibility of developing infrastructure in three villages by 2019.

But three months after the prime minister revealed his plan and almost a month after its formal launch, not many MPs, including those of the BJP, have shown much interest in developing model villages, according to a report published in Anandabazaar Patrika on Tuesday. They fear that focussing on one village community could enrage residents of other villages in the constitutency and the result could be ominous during the election, according to the report.

According to one BJP MP of the Lok Sabha, they have no intention to defy the PM's instruction but they are also facing a ground reality while executing the plan of developing model villages, the report said. "If we spend most of our funds after one village, the people of other villages will be upset. All villages have been promised about some work. But now if we pick one village, the others are likely to turn away from us when the next election comes," the report quoted him as saying.

BJP MP from Sasaram Chhedi Paswan, however, is not convinced. He said other villages can learn from the development of the model village, the report added. Paswan, who defeated former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar in the last general election, said it would be better if one among the most backward villages is chosen. Paswan himself has chosen Malhipur village.

Among the few MPs who have come forward to adopt villages so far, former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, a Rajya Sabha MP, has taken responsibility of a village near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.

The prime minister himself is not sitting aloof after the launch of the project either. He is scheduled to visit his constituency Varanasi later this week and according to sources in the Prime Ministe's Office, he will adopt a village near the holy city.

Oneindia News