VIZIANAGARAM: An 11-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development, led by Chairman P. Venugopal (AIADMK), on Tuesday reviewed the implementation of the Central government-sponsored programmes, visited Dwarapudi, the adopted village of Union Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, and SBI Rural Self-Employment Training Institute at TTDC, where they presented mementoes to successful entrepreneurs who were trained in various vocational skills.
The parliamentary team was seemingly happy with the district officials and bankers for transforming a sleepy and dusty village into a model one with clean cement roads with avenue plantation on either side, clean drains, solar pump house, organic manure units taken up under NADEP, community toilets, individual toilets in every household, library, primary school building, digital transactions by every trader, and units run by micro entrepreneurs.
They interacted with the villagers and enquired with sarpanch Srinivasa Rao if there were any other problems for redressal.
Dr. Venugopal purchased a chocolate at a shop and paid Rs.10 by using his e-wallet.
Later, addressing a gathering, he congratulated the district officials and bankers for making Dwarapudi the first digital transactions-enabled model village in India.
One of the team members, Gokaraju Ganga Raju (BJP), said that some of the families were still living in thatched huts and they must be encouraged to build pucca houses. All the Centre-sponsored welfare programmes must reach the needy, he added.
Another team member Balak Suman (TRS) said that the committee was happy with Collector Vivek Yadav’s efforts and felt that Dwarapudi would become a model for the entire nation.
He reiterated that despite bifurcation geographically, Telugus in the both the States would remain together.
Earlier, the Collector informed the team members through a PowerPoint presentation the total rural and urban population, literacy rate among men and women, crops, per capita income, and progress of central schemes.
The other members of the team were Jugal Kishore Sharma (BJP), Yashwant Singh (BJP), Shiv Pratap Shukla (BJP), Vijay Kumar Hansdak (JMM), L. Kishore Swain (BJD), Chintaman Wanaga (BJP), Mousam Noor (Congress), and Narayan Lal Panchariya (BJP).
