Work stalled in villages, BJP MPs meet chief secy

NEW DELHI: A year after PM Narendra Modi launched the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna, little work has taken place in the rural villages adopted by the seven Delhi MPs. Upset with the slow progress, BJP MPs raised the issue with Delhi government’s chief secretary K K Sharma at a meeting called by him on Monday on their request.
MPs say most of the development projects have been put on hold. BJP MP from south Delhi Ramesh Bidhuri said none of the 14 projects sanctioned by him have started. “It has been over a year and not a single project has seen light of the day. I have written to various departments but all in vain,” said Bidhuri, who has adopted Bhati village.
The meeting was attended by northeast Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari, who has adopted Chauhan Patii’s Sabhapur village, New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who had initially adopted Pilanji village but had to change to Kutubgarh as Pilanji is an urbanised village, and west Delhi MP Parvesh Sahib Singh, who has adopted Jharouda Kalan. Representatives of other MPs also attended.
The MPs said, as per the scheme, the first set of villages should have been ready by 2016 and two more by 2019. But till now, no work has happened. “I had sanctioned the laying of a sewer line in my village (Chilla). But till date, no work has started. The year has come to an end, when will the work start?” asked Maheish Girri, BJP MP from east Delhi.
The meeting was attended by heads of all major departments, district magistrates and other senior officials.
Sources in the government pointed to a lack of clarity in its provisions. “There are no gram panchayats in Delhi and a majority of Central schemes for rural villages are not applicable here. The Centre recently clarified that urbanised villages can’t be adopted,” said a senior government official.