Haryana BJP MPs blame own government for failure of Adarsh Gram scheme

The members of Parliament (MPs) of the ruling BJP in Haryana have blamed its state and central leadership for the failure of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yoajna — a scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for holistic development in villages.

Under the scheme, the MPs were asked to adopt three villages each in three phases during their tenure of five years. The objectives of the scheme were to substantially improve the quality of life of all sections of the population in the adopted villages through improved basic amenities, reduced disparities and wider social mobilisation.

The scheme aimed at generating models of effective local governance that would inspire and motivate neighbouring gram panchayats to learn and adapt.

However, the scheme has been a failure in Haryana where six out of 10 Lok Sabha MPs have not even adopted the required three villages.

The six MPs, four of whom belong to the ruling BJP, have blamed the government for non-cooperation and fund crunch.

The four MPs who adopted all three villages also admitted that no work could be done in most of them.

BJP MP from Ambala, Rattan Lal Kataria, adopted only one village in the first phase of the scheme. When asked why he gave the other two phases a miss, the MP said, “I thought instead of doing little work in three villages, I focus all my attention on one village only. The Khadri gram panchayat I adopted in Ambala is completely changed now. People now have water connections, the roads have improved and a system has been set up for solid waste management.”

He added, “Actually, it was only during the first phase that the government had put emphasis on this scheme. Then the government forgot that the scheme existed and most of the MPs also gave up on it.”

Raj Kumar Saini, a rebel BJP MP from Kurukshetra who has now floated a new party, adopted two villages. He said there was no logic of adopting the third village when not a single work could be done in the second adopted village.

“Both state and central governments ignored the list of projects sent by me for Jhansa gram panchayat adopted in the second phase. What was the point of adopting the third, then?” he asked.

Another ruling party MP, who requested anonymity, said the scheme could cost him votes from the village he adopted. “They (villagers) are angry that work could not be done after I adopted the village. The government departments did not respond to my requests for it. Had I used my MPLADS for the adopted village, the other 200 villages under my constituency would accuse me of bias,” he said.

The BJP MPs’ discontent was echoed by opposition MPs as well, who also blamed the government for failing the scheme.

INLD MP from Sirsa Charanjeet Singh Rori said, “I still have the list of 19 works I wanted to do in Lambi village I adopted in Sirsa. But there was zero cooperation from the government. I wrote to them multiple times, but there was no response. Why should I adopt another village then,” he said.