Elections 2019: Saansad Adarsh Gram Villagers in Maharashtra Say No to BJP After MP Fails in Development

Mention Saansad Adarsh Gram and villagers of Taroda in Wardha ridicule the fact that their village was adopted by their MP under the Yojana. They allege that the MP took all the funds to develop his own village located nearby, instead of focusing on the adopted village. 

Taroda is in Wardha Taluka of Wardha district. Ramdas Tadas from the Bharatiya Janata Party was elected as the Member of Parliament from this constituency in 2014. The population of the village is 3,390, out of which 2,900 are voters. Over 60% of them are farmers and remaining are farm labourers. Tadas adopted this village for development under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana in 2014.

What is Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 launched the Saansad Adarsha Gram Yojna (SAGY) which is a village development project. Under the project, each member of parliament is supposed to take responsibility to develop physical and institutional infrastructure of three villages by 2019. 

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The responsible MPs should develop basic amenities like pucca (concrete) house for all poor living in kutcha (mud or thatched) house, proper road connectivity, treated piped drinking water, village market, CCTV and covered drains among other infrastructure. All poor, disabled, single women should get pension, insurance and health insurance. Economic development is to be carried out via organic farming, seed banks, micro irrigation and through rural industrialisation like setting up food processing units, dairy development and micro enterprises. Human and personal development is also expected to take place by increasing quality of life in various ways. 

Current Status of the Village 

Shrinivas Chambhare, a villager, said, “Ramdas Tadas, our MP, visited this place only five times in five years despite the fact that he has adopted the village. The roads and sewage system that you see have been there since the time of earlier MPs. Look around the village, there are no proper streetlights, there is no regular supply of water. These are basic facilities, forget about beautification of the village that is mandatory under the Adarsh Saansad Gram scheme.”

Lalita Shende is another village who is forced to stay in a hut made up of sticks covered by mud, as she did not get a pucca house despite applying for a home under Gharkul scheme several times. She said, “I have visited the Gram Panchayat and Tehsil office many times and have submitted my documents. But I have not got a house nor have I gotten a toilet.” Her neighbour was selected for the Gharkul scheme but could not avail the house as the plot of her current hut is not in her name. Basically under the scheme, all poor people having no pucca house should get house. Yet, even after 5 years, the village is full of mud-brick huts.

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Livelihood opportunities should have been provided through micro industrialisation or farming. But people of all ages, old and youth can be seen sitting idle at many chowks here as there are no jobs at farms due to droughts. Villagers say that even work under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act could not be availed for the last five years. 

People’s anger was made visible during the Gram Panchayat elections held on March 24. Shumbhagi Chambhare, the newly elected Sarpanch, said, “Tadas is from BJP and earlier all 11 Gramsevak and Sarpanch were of BJP. So it was easier for him to implement all the development plans easily as there was no opposition. But he built only one water tank of Rs 1.75 crore from where water supply is yet to begin. He put up one street light, only one at main chowk and not along all roads.” 

She added, “People were so fed up of them that in the Gram Panchayat elections, seven members and Sarpanch have been elected from independent panel. Villagers knew that Tadas or BJP have not done anything for the village. If BJP had done any work, people would have voted for them.” 

A senior citizen sums up saying, “He should have built a community hall so that old people can sit there in the afternoons or a garden where people can go to take walk. However, he did not develop even basic facilities like roads and street lights.”

Villagers allege that tje MP has taken funds worth Rs 25 crore meant for Taroda to his own village, Deoli. They are determined not to cast their vote to Tadas for sure as they don’t want to repeat their earlier mistake.

Despite several attempts, Ramdas Tadas did not attend any calls of this reporter.

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