The State government will shortly send a detailed proposal to the Union government on the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY), a Centrally-sponsored scheme for the development of villages wherein Scheduled Castes account for over 50 per cent of the population.
Responding to a news report published in TheHindu on Wednesday that Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were yet to respond to the Central scheme, the State Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department Principal Secretary, Vishwanath A. Shegaonkar, said that his department sent an initial proposal to the Centre on March 29, within a week of receiving the communication from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
It had been proposed to take up the scheme in 225 villages of Cuddalore and Tiruvarur districts. The Centre would give Rs. 10 lakh for each village, totalling Rs. 22.5 crore. As many as 157 villages in the Tiruvarur district and 68 villages in Cuddalore would be covered. The Union government had even released Rs. 1.3 crore.
State Commissioner for Adi Dravidar Welfare P. Sivasankaran took part in a meeting in New Delhi on March 25. Another meeting in April was attended by Mr. Shegaonkar himself.
The issue at hand was coordination with various departments. As the scheme envisaged a holistic development of the villages, the involvement of departments such as Health, Animal Husbandry, Labour, Rural Development and Agriculture became necessary. To ensure this, the formation of three committees – Advisory Committee, Steering Committee and District-level Committees – had been suggested. Deputy Chief Minister would head the Advisory Committee; Chief Secretary – Steering Committee and District Collectors, the district-level committees.
Mr. Shegaonkar said that the government was in the process of setting up the committees. Once this was done, the detailed proposal would be sent.
He said that as the scheme was more or less modelled on the lines of the Annaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam, the State was better placed to execute it.
