Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged government departments to follow an outcome-based approach to ensure comprehensive rural development, and appealed to citizens to use rural products as a “fashion statement” to ensure prosperity of rural artisans.
“It is not enough to say we want to ensure development. If we do it in a time-bound manner and ensure our schemes benefit the target group, there is no dilution or diversion and the approach is outcome-based, then by 2022, our rural development will be so fast that it will fulfil our dreams of the past 70 years,” Mr. Modi said.
Ahead of Deepavali, the Prime Minister appealed to the well-off to use earthen lamps made by rural artisans for the festival. “If people in big households use earthen lamps made by our potters for Deepavali, then you ensure that they too can celebrate the festival,” he said.
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Centenary fete
The Prime Minister shared his views on rural development at an event to mark the centenary celebrations of Nanaji Deshmukh, one of the founding members of the Jana Sangh and social reformer, and the 115th birth anniversary of the socialist leader Jayprakash Narayan.
Mr. Modi said he did not agree with the view that “the country lacks resources to ensure development to the last person in a queue”. He said lack of “good governance” was what was holding back the desired results.
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He said the States that had an efficient and proactive machinery delivered welfare schemes better. “MGNREGA is a scheme meant for the poor, but I have noticed that the States where there is more poverty give less MNREGA work, while those that have less poverty allocate more MNREGA work,” he said.
Mobile app
The Prime Minister, who formally launched 11 Rural Self-Employment Training Institutes (RSETI) and a mobile app to track development schemes, said democracy was not just about winning elections but ensuring participative development. “It’s about ensuring a dialogue where the right guidelines and feedback are given for effective policy making and such a mobile app will help achieve this,” he said.