Puttamraju Kandriga may well become a model for MPs who wish to adopt a village as part of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). In an interview with Raghuvir Srinivasan over phone and email just before he left for Melbourne to watch the World Cup final, Sachin Tendulkar said he was proud of the development he’s been able to bring to this remote village in Andhra Pradesh. Excerpts:

Why Puttamraju Kandriga?

Prime Minister Narendra Modiji mentioned about the Sansad Gram Yojana during the I-Day speech which deeply interested me. Along with my team, we started doing the preliminary work of identifying potential villages.

It was during this period that I met the joint collector of Nellore, Rekha Rani. We had a healthy discussion on the challenges of Nellore district and some of the potential gram panchayats that could be considered for adoption.

I was impressed with the quick turnaround time of the administration led by collector N Srikanth and the commitment of the team.

We agreed on Nernuru gram panchayat where Puttamraju Kandriga would be the village for development considering that there was availability of State land for infrastructure development. I’m proud that we have been able to provide basic necessities such as running water.

I visited the village in November 2014 and was impressed with the speed and efficiency of the administration.

Collector Srikanth and the joint collector Rekha Rani were instrumental in expediting the master plan for the village and ensuring things moved at a brisk pace. The current administration led by Collector M Janaki has been working closely with us in ensuring the work is completed as envisaged and continuity is maintained.

SAGY goes beyond creating physical infrastructure, and into areas such as enabling livelihoods, eradicating social evils and so on.

Yeah, we definitely plan to do more and have as many social programmes as possible. Now we are focused on developing the physical infrastructure. This is obviously the first phase and we are considering the common amenities that need to be developed in other villages in the panchayat.

Have you been receiving requests for similar development works?

Yes, from elected representatives, collectors and even individuals.I wish I could have adopted them and impacted as many as I could, but I understand that presently only one adoption of a panchayat at a time is allowed.

What’s next under MPLAD?

After much evaluation and study, I have recommended some projects in various parts of the country under MPLAD. These are in different stages of evaluation and implementation. I am quite excited at the prospect of the next village adoption and there are learnings from PR Kandriga that can be utilised.

Was this your first experience with MPLAD funds?

I have used the funds earlier as well. There is so much paper work and formalities involved in MPLAD funds. We give it to our collector here who sends it to the district collector of the place where we wish to implement a project… and so on; it’s a lengthy procedure and we’ve done it before. I have used up ₹6.80 crore of my MPLAD funds until now.

Have you faced any pressure from political parties in your home State?

No, I have never faced pressure from any direction because as I told you, I want to do something all over the nation. That is how I think, and it’s not region-based but India for me.

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