Development of Delhi villages in mind, L-G Saxena interacts with over 500 residents

New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Tuesday interacted with more than 500 residents of 180 villages in order to chalk out a comprehensive plan of action for development of city’s villages, Raj Niwas officials said.

The interactive session was organised by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) under the ambitious “Dilli Gramoday Abhiyan” ideated and launched by the L-G

for development of Delhi’s villages, it stated.

“The first-of-its-kind engagement with the villagers at Raj Niwas aimed at seeking suggestions/ideas to chalk out a comprehensive plan of action for development of Delhi’s villages and thus making the villagers a key stakeholder in the development of urbanised as well as rural villages,” the

statement said.

The villagers led by public representatives, including the Members of Parliament — Meeenakshi Lekhi, Harsh Vardhan, Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri — lauded this initiative as a landmark in the development of Delhi’s villages and said this would emerge as a sustainable model of development before the entire country, it said. Saxena, who has already adopted five villages — Qutabgarh, Jaunti, Daurala, Rawta and Nizampur — said all villages will be developed on similar lines by the DDA with the help of Rs 800 crore transferred to the agency recently.

This, he said, is in addition to Rs 480 crore of village development fund that has already been sanctioned for carrying out development works in

180 villages.

He exhorted the residents to identify the specific problems concerning their villages and the tentative solutions so that they could be incorporated while finalising the plan of action for each village.

Saxena said he will be staying overnight in identified villages of the city to get a first-hand account of the problems faced by the residence there. Starting this month, district magistrates will also visit and stay in the identified villages, hold consultations with the villagers and accordingly finalise the development works in the villages, the statement said.

While interacting with the L-G, a number of village representatives rued that despite a lapse of several decades, their villages lacked even basic amenities like sewer network, roads, parks, schools, hospitals and clean drinking water among others. Some villagers from the urbanised villages complained of acute parking shortage, it stated.

The L-G exuded confidence that with the help of Rs 800 crore and by engaging villagers in the development works, the city’s villages will undergo a facelift in the next few months, the statement said.

Apart from the infrastructure boost in these villages, Saxena also urged the villagers, particularly the youths and women, to avail of government schemes to set up their own small manufacturing units that will boost village industries as also it will create employment opportunities locally, it said.

He reiterated his commitment of creating world class sports infrastructure in Delhi’s villages and said coaches/trainers from the Indian Army and Indian Oil Corporation would soon be available to train the local youths who have exhibited their high potential by winning several medals in different sporting events

recently, it added.