Make 2025 year of poverty-free villages, says Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Ahead of the Union Budget, Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday called upon state ministers to make 2025 a year of ‘poverty-free villages.’

 

Addressing a virtual review meeting with state rural development ministers, Chouhan said that few villages in every block could be identified for ideal implementation of all the schemes.

 

He said ‘poverty-free village’ means that no-one should be unemployed in that village, and everyone should have some source of livelihood.

 

He also said the Centre has started the survey to identify new beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and care should be taken to ensure that no-one is left behind.

 

Chouhan also called upon the states to effectively use technology and IT solutions to identify the beneficiaries of PM-Awas Yojana, and said the work of identifying the fresh beneficiaries using the Awas plus app should be completed in the next three months.

 

Chouhan also informed the ministers that towards the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of creating 30 million Lakhpati Didi’s, 11.5 million Didi’s have become Lakhpati Didi’s and 29.1 million potential Lakhpati Didi’s have been identified in states.

 

He informed that the deadline for completion of works sanctioned under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana phase 1 and 2 has been extended again from March 2024 to March 2025.

 

“Under PMGSY-IV, a survey for identifying eligible habitations is underway, and is to be completed by January 31, 2025, so that road construction work can be started soon,” Chouhan informed.

 

He also informed that 1.3 billion man-days have been created in MGNREGA since June 2024.

 

During this period, the Centre has released a total of Rs 50,467 crore to the state governments. The Minister also informed that under Mission Amrit Sarovar launched by Prime Minister Modi on April 24, 2022, more than 68,000 Amrit Sarovars have been completed so far.

 

“Now taking this mission forward, the mission is being expanded in the form of phase 2, under which more Sarovars will be constructed or revived,” Chouhan informed.

 

Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin, in the last eight years, an average of about 10,000 houses have been built per day. The average days for completion of houses have come down from 314 to 114 days.