MP village sees hectic development under Sansad Adarsh Gram

This sleepy little village bordering Uttar Pradesh has woken up to hectic development activities with Union minister Prakash Javadekar adopting it under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
Environment and Forest Minister Javadekar is leaving no stone unturned to make Paldev a model of development.
Eleven months ago, Javadekar, a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, had adopted this village near Chitrakoot where the late Nanaji Deshmukh had set up a host of institutions for rural development more than two decades back.
Javadekar says Nanaji's work attracted him to adopt the village in this area and that he chose Paldev as villages on the border are always the least developed.

Besides, this village in Satna district is predominantly inhabited by people from scheduled castes and backward castes.
Since adopting the village, 64-year-old Javadekar has moved in a number of directions to ensure that the rural folk get a better deal, may it be education, health, nutrition, water conservation, green cover, agriculture and insurance.

Paldev has some 5,000 inhabitants spread in 840 families living in five habitations.
His monthly visit to the village this time saw an event where some 100 women tied 'rakhi' on him, and he gave cheques of Rs 205 to them to pay towards Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana under which a person is insured for Rs 2 lakh.

The Environment and Forest Minister has succeeded in planting as many as 5,000 trees on a hillock adjoining the village and has roped in participation of local people to ensure that the green cover spreads.
He said the best result he has got is in the field of education as the government school's performance has gone up dramatically after the teachers were given special training at Bhopal. The school had only 28 per cent pass rate in the 12th standard last year which has now become 82 per cent while the pass percentage of 11 per cent for the 10th standard has risen to 51 per cent.

Javadekar's intervention also helped improve mid-day meal scheme and has led to lowering of the drop-out rate substantially.
A former executive president of the Planning Board in Maharashtra, Javadekar has also given fillip to horticulture in the area so that farmers get supplementary income. He also took initiatives for soil testing to help farmers.