Pakyong, September 08 (IPR):
A coordination meeting regarding the Vibrant Village Programme-II (VVP-II), for Pakyong District was convened at the DDMA Control Hall, Pakyong, today.
The meeting was chaired by District Collector, Pakyong, Mr Rohan Agawane and had the presence of Additional District Collector (Headquarters), Mr GL Meena; ADC (Development), Mr Robin Pd Sewa; Sub Divisional Magistrate, Mr Dakman Subba; SDM (Headquarters), Mr Thendup Lepcha, panchayat members of the identified villages, Head of Offices from various line departments, Block Development Officers from concerned blocks along with officials from Indian Army, Rhenock and Sashastra Seema Bal.
The Vibrant Village Programme is the Government of India's scheme for the comprehensive development of border villages in Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, and Ladakh. The programme focuses on generating livelihoods through tourism, cultural heritage, skill development, cooperatives, and agriculture, along with improving connectivity, health, education, energy, and telecom facilities. Its objective is to create incentives for people to stay in these strategic villages.
The Vibrant Village Programme-II is a Central Sector Scheme for the comprehensive development of the villages located in the blocks abutting international land borders (ILBs), other than the Northern border already covered under VVP-I.
It focuses on improving infrastructure, livelihoods, connectivity, education, and cultural promotion, while strengthening border security. Implementation will be based on village-specific action plans, with technology like PM Gati Shakti used for effective implementation.
VVP-I along with VVP-II is a transformative initiative to make the border villages self-reliant and vibrant.
During the meeting, the DC Pakyong directed officials to conduct baseline surveys and prepare village profiles along with gap identification for the identified villages. He instructed that the projects should be framed within the revenue boundary of each village, specify reasons for their non-coverage under other Central and State schemes, outline how the proposed interventions would enhance village vibrancy, and maintain limit on the project cost.
Prior to the meeting, the ADC (Headquarters) briefed the participants on the objectives, focus areas of the programme, funding patterns, significance, implementation framework and strategic vision of VVP-I and VVP-II, highlighting the identification of five villages in the Pakyong District under the programme.
He highlighted that the programme’s motto is to adopt a focused and holistic approach for the development of strategically located border villages, with border security at its core.
He further outlined that the programme also aims to saturate all villages in such blocks in four thematic areas, namely all-weather road connectivity, telecom connectivity, television connectivity and on-grid electrification through convergence under existing scheme norms and suggested an implementation plan for interventions.
He briefed about key areas of saturation under VVP-II, which are livelihood generation, road connectivity, village infrastructure, promotion of tourism, culture, and outreach activities, financial inclusion, empowerment of youth, skill development, and education infrastructure.
In addition, he gave a brief outline of the implementation framework, mentioning how the programme would be carried out at both the State and District levels and the role of stakeholders. He explained the process for preparation of the Detailed Project Report, outlining the steps to be followed.
Further, an open discussion was held during the meeting, wherein participants shared problems, suggestions, and queries related to the implementation of VVP-II.