Ahmed Patel against expansion of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Opposing the expansion of the NDA Government's ambitious Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, Congress leader Ahmed Patel has said the scheme, which intends to develop model villages, has "fallen way short of expectations".

The Congress leader, who has adopted Dhumkal Group gram panchayat in Gujarat's Narmada district, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said: "Unfortunately, nearly two years later, we are miles away from an Adarsh village."

His opposition to the scheme came in the wake of the Ministry of Rural Development asking Members of Parliament (MPs) to adopt a second village.

Stating that he had written several letters to Union ministers on various issues, including the absence of mobile network, lack of an all-weather access road, setting up of fair price shops and insufficient employment under MGNREGA, Patel, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, said: "Despite my attempts to seek cooperation of central and state government agencies, none of the above-mentioned endeavours reached fruition, except for one primary school building in one of the villages."

Patel pointed out that there are two fundamental reasons as to why the scheme has fallen way short of expectation. "First, there are no special funds allocated for this scheme, which can be targeted to adopted villages. Second, ministries and departments concerned, both at the central and state level, have not been responsive enough to ensure all government schemes are executed at the highest priority level in the adopted villages, which was the original thinking behind the scheme," he added.