The team from Rashtrapati Bhawan interacts with villagers in Alipur on Tuesday.
A team from Rashtrapati Bhawan on Tuesday visited five villages that have been adopted by President Pranab Mukherjee to develop them into "smart villages".
Four of these, namely Alipur, Daula, Harchandpur and Taj Nagar, are in the Gurgaon district, while Rozka Meo is in Mewat.
The visiting team included NK Sudhanshu, a director from the Rashtrapati Bhawan secretariat, Abhijeet Rai, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the President, Krishan Gaur, representative of National Skill Development Corporation, and SD Sharma from National Informatics Centre (NIC) Delhi.
The team also had a brief meeting with TL Satya Prakash, Gurgaon's deputy commissioner, at his office in Mini Secretariat. It was attended by office heads of agriculture, power, utilities, public health, engineering, education and other aligned departments.
The visiting team members NK Sudhanshu (left), a director from the Rashtrapati Bhawan secretariat, and Abhijeet Rai (centre), OSD to the President, during the meeting with TL Satya Prakash, Gurgaon deputy commissioner, at his Mini Secretariat office in Gurgaon
A function to formally announce the adoption of the villages will be held on July 2 to be attended by representatives of NITI Aayog, the union ministry for rural development, agriculture and other related departments. A delegation of villagers and officers will be invited to Rashtrapati Bhawan for the function.
Villagers who cannot attend the function will be able to watch it live on LED screens installed in their village. The President will also interact with villagers and students in their respective villages through webcast.
Later, a five-day training course for villagers on agriculture, irrigation and sanitation will be organised in each of the villages. A survey of the infrastructure and facilities available in these villages will be done and a village development plan prepared in consultation with the villagers on the lines of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna.
Providing electricity, drinking water, health and sanitation facilities will be a priority in these villages, which will carried out through a convergence method, that is, by roping in schemes of Centre and State governments, utilising CSR (corporate social responsibility) of PSUs (public sector undertakings) and private institutions, and researches conducted by universities. Villagers will also be asked to cooperate.
TL Satya Prakash will be the programme leader, and additional deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh will serve as the coordinator at the ground level.
