Seven schemes of the Modi government to reach 45,000 villages soon

The central government has tasked 750 officers to implement seven of Modi government’s schemes covering 45,000 villages in the 115 ‘aspirational districts’ by August 15 in the second edition of the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (GSA), which is under close scrutiny of the Prime Minister’s Office, as per a report in The Economic Times.

One officer has been given charge of 75 villages and ordered to undertake at least three visits to the village spanning four to seven days till August 15, sources from the government told the paper.

A ‘prabhari’ officer has been assigned to each district in an additional role, 322 directors and deputy secretaries have been assigned as nodal officers. Four to 10 such officers will have one ‘Prabhari’ officer, who will assign villages for tours and schedule visits of nodal officers.

In these aspirational districts, the government is focusing on five “high priority areas”, including education, health, skills and agriculture through its seven schemes. A control room has been set up in New Delhi for continuous monitoring by prabhari officers.

Bihar has the most number of target villages, followed by West Bengal, Jharkhand, UP and Madhya Pradesh.

The villages will also be observed by the officers to see if people are aware of the scheme, if they think the scheme is expensive or if they spotted any malpractices on the ground.

The power ministry has to cover 56.83 lakh unelectrified households in the 45,000 villages under the Saubhagya scheme. The ministry may also launch an app to release connections on the spot.

Another big challenge is for the petroleum ministry to provide LPG connections under the Ujjwala scheme to 7.77 lakh people in at least 16,000 villages under the first phase of the GSA. Over 35 lakh LPG connections were given out in May under phase 1, the government plans to continue that in phase 2.