KAKINADA/TIRUPATI: The Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore District and East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh bagged the second and third ranks in the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) 2020 awards respectively, out of three best-performing districts in the country
The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is implementing the centrally sponsored scheme, PMAGY, for integrated development of villages with a Scheduled Castes (Scs) majority, from 2018-19, based on the revised implementation of guidelines.
As the actual implementation of the scheme is being done at the district level, and in order to encourage district officials, the department has instituted the PMAGY Awards-2020 to felicitate the three best-performing districts in the country based on their performance against pre-defined criteria.
SPSR Nellore district bagged the second spot in PM Adarsh Gram Yojana rollout. The Centre has selected this as the second-best-performing district in the effective implementation of schemes under the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) for integrated development of the Scheduled Castes for the years 2018-19 and 2019-20.
R Subrahmanyam, secretary to the ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment wrote to state chief secretary Aditya Nath Das on Tuesday on the selection. In his letter, Subrahmanyam stated that the ministry has been implementing the scheme on the revised implementation guidelines since 2018-19.
The ministry announced the PMAGY Award 2020 based on the progress of works as on Mar 31, 2021.
The Nellore district bagging the second place got a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh, while the Cachar district in Assam and AP’s East Godavari district bagged the first and third places respectively.
The Union Government has started the programme in 2009-10 for development of the areas where SC population is prominently prevalent. In 2014-15, the programme was expanded to 500 villages. Specific guidelines were issued in 2018-19; and it was being implemented in 9,632 villages of 525 districts of 24 states up to 2019-20.
The programme was implemented in 37 villages in Nellore up to 2019-20 and now extended to 74 villages.
The Centre has sanctioned Rs 15.08 crore for implementation of the activities. The performance assessment committee employed by the ministry selected Nellore district. Zilla Parishad CEO, Dhanalakshmi, thanked the ministers from the district and others for extending their support for the good performance.
In East Godavari, the then district collector Muralidhar Reddy chalked out a plan for better implementation and better use of the scheme for the SC-majority villages and formed village development convergence committees and district-level committees.
The district-level committee headed by Muralidhar Reddy appointed the Young Professional for Project Implement Cell coordinator Dinesh Kumar. The then joint collector Raja Kumari, district panchayat officer Nageswar Nayak, nodal officer for the scheme, Zilla Parishad CEO Satyanarayana and joint director of social welfare have monitored the implementation of the scheme.
The then district collector and present MD of APMSIDC told Deccan Chronicle that 435 works have been identified in 32 villages in the district under the scheme at a cost of Rs 35 crore, out of which 71 works have been completed.
According to the scheme, the village development plan was prepared by the village development committee and it identified the works. Works related to drinking water pipelines, solar street lights, roads, drainages, anganwadi buildings, roads etc are being taken up.
Satyanarayana said 71 works have been completed under PMGAY scheme in East Godavari and 50 works were now in progress.
