Sunita Dube

Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan's first priority is to get Madhya Pradesh included in the list of leading states of India. With a view to giving shape to his cherished dream, the Chief Minister is undertaking efforts to remove backwardness in all the fields including economic, social, educational and health areas. Shri Chouhan is determined to develop and most backward areas and to bring about prosperity and benefits of development to the last man in the last row. India's soul lives in villages. Similar is the condition of Madhya Pradesh where 4 and half crore out of total population of 6.5 crore live in villages. Therefore it is but natural that development of villages has been given top priority by Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, command of which has been entrusted to Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Shri Rustam Singh. The administrative experience of Shri Rustam Singh is proving to be boon in the present rural development works.

When the village comes in contact with city, it connects to the nation and joins the national mainstream and the main means of joining villages with cities are rural roads. Under Pradhan Mantri's Gram Sadak Yojana, 5807 villages have been directly connected to cities through roads in Madhya Pradesh till November 2007. Under Pradhan Mantri's Gram Sadak Yojana, 15,892 km long 3,462 roads have been completed in the state out of which 12,524 roads have been laid during the last four years. Madhya Pradesh tops in Pradhan Mantri's Gram Sadak Yojana so far is approval and expenditure is concerned while it at the second place in implementation and quality. The state government has so far been allocated Rs 3844 crore under this scheme out of which Rs 3667 crore has been spend on construction of roads. Laying of rural roads has begun the development of rural area on a pleasing note. Children from rural areas are now going to the colleges and schools of their choice for high education to any city, local farm produce has been provided market and sick rural folks can now be rushed to the hospital of nearby cities for better treatment. The fortunes of the bachelors have also changed with the construction of rural roads as they are able to find good matches.

Adequate employment is key to prosperity. For the consecutive second year Madhya Pradesh has stood first in getting funds from the Centre under Rural Employment Scheme and expenditure thereon. Till October 2007, Union government had allocated Rs 225597.2 lakh to Madhya Pradesh under this scheme, 50 per cent of which i.e. Rs 12464.48 lakh has been spent. Since the state has emerged as the leading state in the implementation of Rural Employment Scheme, the Union government is providing financial assistance as per the requirements of Madhya Pradesh. The Rural Employment Scheme has been under implementation in 18 districts of the state since 2005-07 and in 13 districts from 2007-08 while the proposal to implement it in the rest 17 districts is pending. The scheme has so far been extended to 15,245 village panchayats. The scheme also envisages to ensure the livelihood security of rural people. During a financial year those members of a rural family, who possesses Jobcard, is given at least 100 days' employment under this scheme. Out of one lakh 55 thousand 474 works started under Rural Employment Scheme in Madhya Pradesh. 44 thousand 54 have been complete till the month of October, 2007 and works to the tune of Rs one lakh 11 thousand 420 are under progress. Through these works 1248.09 mandays employment has been generated. Another scheme 'Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana' is also under implementation to provide full time jobs based on labour and bring about improvement in the quality of nutritious food through food security. Under this scheme employment is also provided by creating temporary social, community and economic assets and infrastructure development. Madhya Pradesh is leading in the implementation of this scheme also over other states. Special provisions have been made under this scheme for the members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Till October 2007, 18.544 works under this scheme have been completed while 11,689 are under progress and 83.38 per cent of the allocated funds have been spent. In all, 27,770 metric tonnes of food grains was received out of which 22314 metric tonnes of food grains have been distributed to beneficiaries. Under this scheme 15 per cent funds are to be spent on minorities and Jabalpur, Shajapur and Raisen are on top of the districts which have implemented this. In these districts amounts to the tune of Rs 70 lakh, Rs 49 lakh and Rs 44 lakh was spent respectively.

Remarkable works have been done in Madhya Pradesh under Samagra Swachhchhata Abhiyan (Concerted Sanitation Campaign). Under the scheme names of 2200 villages have been recommended for Nirmal Gram Awards. Nirmal Gram Award is given to those villages where open-area defecation is eliminated cent per cent. Last year 171 villages were given this award. Efforts for maximum clean drinking water at the local level are also afoot under Swajal Dhara Yojana.

Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, introduced for poverty elimination in the rural areas has also witnessed rapid progress in the state and so far more than three lakh Self-Help Groups have been formed. Beneficiaries include 40 per cent women, 50 per cent SC\ST members and 3 per cent physically challenged persons. Similarly, district poverty elimination programme, better livelihood opportunities have been provided to three lakh families of 2902 villages. The groups include 29 per cent of women, 25 per cent of scheduled castes and 26 per cent of schedules castes. In the tribal-dominated districts of the state a target to provide co-bearing livelihood to 45 thousand families was set in the first phase of MP Grameen Ajeevika Yojana. The target was exceeded as over 51 thousand families were joined in various activities of earning livelihood. Due to impressive and successful implementation of the first phase, the second phase has been implemented in the state since July 2007 by DFID and Union government. The scheme is operative in 822 villages in eight tribal-dominant districts namely Jhabua, Dhar, Badwani, Mandla, Shahdol, Dindori, Anuppur and Sheopur. For this scheme Rs 357 crore was allocated. Presently, selection process of 1878 villages has been completed.

Rs 12,500 to Rs 25,000 is being provided per beneficiary for construction and improvement of houses under Indira Awas Yojana and Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojana. Under Jalabhishek Abhiyan has been introduced since last one and half years by the state government to provide adequate water to farmers. Under this scheme, four lakh water conservation and augmentation programmes have been chalked out at a cost of Rs 2000 crore. Country's biggest water management programme is also being implemented in the state. Due to this programme the irrigated area in Rabi season and the area of double crops has doubled while groundwater table has risen from 22 to 56 per cent.

Madhya Pradesh is also among the leading states in the implementation of Mid-day Meal Scheme. So far, this scheme was operative only in government primary schools but from October 2007 the scheme has been extended to middles schools in 203 development blocks. The Union government has allocated Rs 139 crore for construction of 23232 kitchens under this scheme. Construction of 10131 kitchens has been completed so far while construction of rest of the kitchens is under progress.