Rural uplilft: CM-Hazare meet today

Maharashtra Chief minister Ashok Chavan will meet social activist and convenor of the ideal village scheme' (Adarsh Gaon Yojana), Anna Hazare, at the state guest house Sahyadri this evening to discuss his various demands among them an allocation of Rs 100 crore from the state government for effective implementation of the scheme.

Plans are underway to add more than 100 new villages to the scheme this year. The scheme has so far received Rs two crore for this year.
u00a0
Introduced by the state in 2001, the ideal village scheme has seen little progress in its implementation over the last few years.

The scheme was revived after former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh took the initiative and designated Hazare convenor of the scheme. The scheme includes implementation of developmental projects with citizen initiatives.

The scheme at present has been implemented in 201 villages across the state. The plan was to add 100 villages during the next three years. Hazare has demanded a fund of Rs 100 crore has been demanded for this.

The fund will be allocated for implementation of various watershed schemes and other developmental projects like setting up of water tanks, sanitation schemes and setting up of cropping patterns at the village level.

Hazare has criticised the implementation of the scheme saying it has always faced scarcity of funds, resources, mismanagement at the departmental level and lack of effective plans.

The government has released Rs two crore to complete pending work in villages with a population up to 5,000. Bigger villages will be considered after this is done.