E-Paper
Vibrant village programme: Govt directs 2 Himachal districts to prepare plan for developing 76 villages
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sanctioned ₹4,800 crore in the Union budget for the ‘Vibrant Villages programme’. The Centre started the programme on February 17, 2023. Out of the total outlay, ₹2,500 crore will be spent on the creation of road infrastructure in the border areas. Recently, Union energy minister RK Singh visited Kinnaur’s border villages along with Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
To counter China’s dual village programme, the government plans to develop 76 villages in Himachal Pradesh along the China border in two districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti. The Himachal Pradesh government has directed the administration of two districts to prepare plans for developing 76 villages of the total 210 villages selected under the vibrant village programme.
“The district administration has been directed to prepare the plans for fastening up the economic activities in the border villages,“ said principal secretary, revenue, Onkar Chand Sharma, who is also principal secretary, tribal development affairs.
“Chief secretary Prabodh Saxena held a virtual meeting with deputy commissioner, Kinnaur, and additional deputy commissioner, Kaza, asking them to prepare a plan for developing 76 villages identified under the Pooh and Kalpa block in Kinnaur, and Kaza block in tribal Lahual and Spiti district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sanctioned ₹4,800 crore in the Union budget for the ‘Vibrant Villages programme’. The Centre started the programme on February 17, 2023. Out of the total outlay, ₹2,500 crore will be spent on the creation of road infrastructure in the border areas. Recently, Union energy minister RK Singh visited Kinnaur’s border villages along with CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
They interacted with the locals to understand their problems. After the programme in Chitkul, the Union minister will come to Kalpa rest house, where he will have a meeting with the CM on issues related to Himachal.
Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti district shares 240 km of the boundary with China which include the 80-km stretch between Chumar in Lahaul and Spiti and 160 km from Daroti to Mumti Dogri in Kinnaur district.
China is continuing to build the “double use” border village that can in-house the troops as well local population. Indian intelligence agencies say 628 such villages dual-use villages have come up on the 3,448-km-long LAC since 2017 in phases in the border states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and the union territory of Ladakh.
There are 210 revenue villages along the China border. “There is not even a single village in the border district which lacks road connectivity. The roads will be widened in 76 villages on a priority basis,“ said Onkar Chand Sharma.
The literacy rate of this border bock is 84.64%. There is a total of 2583 households in the Spiti border block. “The village vibrant programme will give a boost to infrastructure development and opportunities to enhance the livelihood, “ says Onkar Sharma.
The district administration Kinnaur has prepared many DPRs regarding the vibrant village programme. Special gram sabhas were organised in all the concerned villages and proposals from the gram sabhas have been taken, consolidated and submitted to the government.
Under the programme, footbridges and helipads will be constructed in strategic regions. Drinking water facilities will be added along with irrigation facilities for farmers who would be given training in horticulture development, forestry, and organic farming. The government will strengthen health facilities in the tribal regions. It’s due to the harshness that doctors are reluctant to join tribal areas and there are no private practitioners in the region. The government will make provisions for mobile dispensaries in remote villages.
The Himachal Pradesh government had expressed serious concern over the migration of youth from the border villages. Director general of police Sanjay Kundu had sent a team of five police commandants of different battalions to forward areas after China escalated the standoff in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in 2020. The police in its report cited the lack of facilities in the border areas as one of the main reasons for the migration of youth.
