Big B to be the face of village mission

MUMBAI: After ‘Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan’ — aimed at water conservation in drought prone areas through public participation — the Fadnavis government has come up with

MUMBAI: After ‘Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan’ — aimed at water conservation in drought prone areas through public participation — the Fadnavis government has come up with yet another idea to transform villages across the state into model villages with the help of the government and the corporate sector. Actor Amitabh Bachchan has agreed to become the face for the mission.

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To achieve the target, a company will soon be registered that will implement the schemes as per the requirement of the villages by establishing governing council. Representatives from the corporate world will be the members of this council. The concept is called ‘Village Social Transformation Mission’.

The mission’s aim will be to converge all government schemes going on through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to transform the backward areas in the state. The plan is to transform 1,000 villages in the next two years.

To deliberate on the concept and make a concrete plan to achieve the target involving active participation of the sector, CM Fadnavis on Thursday called a meeting with around 60 corporate dignitaries from across the country.

Ratan Tata (Tata trust), Anand Mahindra (Mahindra group), Rajshree Birla (Birla group), Sanjeev Mehta (Hindustan Lever), Sajjan Jindal (JSW), Rajkumar Dhoot (Videocon), State Bank of India chief Arundhati Bhattacharya, Ronnie Screwvala (UTV), and Amitabh Bachchan are among those who attended the meet.

“If my face and my voice helps in transformation of villages, then I will be the happiest,” Bachchan said.

It will be a demand driven mission. The gram Panchayat of a village will have to approach the state government to avail the fruits of the mission, CM clarified.