New Delhi: A total of 1398 villages of all 30 districts of Odisha have been covered under Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY), Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment A. Narayanaswamy in Lok Sabha today.
While replying to a question of Dhenkanal MP from BJD, Mahesh Sahoo, the Union Minister said the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Pradhan MantriAdarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) is being implemented since 2009-10 for integrated development of Scheduled Castes (SC) majority villages.
From the FY 2021-22, this scheme has since been merged with other two schemes for implementation as components of the unified scheme namely Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY).
As per the selection criteria envisaged in the implementation guidelines, villages having a total population of 500 or more with population of Scheduled Castes more than 40% are eligible for selection in descending order of their SC population, he said.
As per the scheme guidelines, an amount of Rs. 20.80 lakh per village is sanctioned to the State in two installments. The 1st installment of Rs. 0.80 lakh per village is released at the time of selection for need assessment and the second installment of Rs 20 lakh per village as gap filling fund is released after generation of the Village Development Plan, Narayanaswamy said.
PMAGY is a rural development programme that was launched by the central government in fiscal year 2009–10 for the development of villages that have a higher ratio (over 50%) of people belonging to the scheduled castes.
The programme was launched to enable integrated development of the villages by bringing in a number of development programmes focused on improving basic necessities including electrification, housing, sanitation, water supply and rural roads.