Maharashtra CM to rope in young fellows to develop 1,000 villages by 2018

MUMBAI: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has drafted a one-year fellowship programme for youngsters to develop 1,000 villages affected by drought or facing social challenges into model villages by 2018.
A high-ranking bureaucrat told TOI that the CM’s rural development fellowship programme will be a key component of the Village Social Transformation Mission, which will converge governments efforts with activities undertaken by corporates under the corporate social responsibility.Ongoing corporate activities will be supported by government schemes and administrative machinery.
“The government, with the support of philanthropists and NGOs, has undertaken measures on a war-footing to tackle the drought that has affected thousands of villages and millions of people. Significantly, the CM’s Jalyukta Shivar campaign has, to some extent, helped us tackle drought in a large number of villages. Now, our mission is to get youngsters involved in effective implementation of the government’s flagship schemes for rural development,’’ he said adding that Maharashtra will be the first state to involve youngsters in rural development.
Elaborating on the scheme, he said each village will have an assigned fellow who will be responsible for overall execution of all activities. S/he will be empowered by the CM to ensure timely and effective transformation of the village. “They will participate in an extensive orientation programme run by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and IIT that will enable them to lead grassroot planning and intervention process. Each fellow will have a mentor, who will be academic practitioners, key government officials or corporate partners,” he said.
The bureaucrat said the fellows will be agents of behavioural change in villages, information bearers of schemes and development works, facilitators between the corporate, government and villages and conduct baseline survey.
“Youngsters were involved in the CM internship programme, now they are encouraged to take up the task of village development,’’ he said.