Rs 6,839 crore approved for livelihood, connectivity in key border villages: Govt

New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) To encourage people to continue living in strategic border villages, the Central government has approved the Vibrant Villages Programme-II (VVP-II) on April 2 as a Central Sector Scheme, with a total outlay of Rs 6,839 crore, till the Financial Year 2028-29, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

The objective of the programme is to create sufficient incentives for people to stay on in the selected villages, said Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, in reply to a question.

The said the funds are meant for comprehensive development of villages located in blocks abutting international land borders (ILB), other than the Northern border already covered under VVP-I, in the States/UTs of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir (UT), Ladakh(UT), Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal,

The programme envisages focused areas of interventions in the select villages for creation of opportunities for livelihood generation through promotion of tourism and cultural heritage, skill development and entrepreneurship and development of cooperative societies, including agriculture/horticulture, cultivation of medicinal plants/herbs, the MoS said.

The interventions under the scheme also include providing road connectivity to unconnected villages, village infrastructures, health facilities, education infrastructure, energy, including renewable energy, television and telecom connectivity, he said.

The government approved Vibrant Villages Programme-I (VVP-I) as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on February 15, 2023, for the comprehensive development of the select villages in 46 blocks abutting the northern border in 19 districts in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and UT of Ladakh.

Initially, 662 border villages have been identified for comprehensive development on priority under the programme. State-wise number of villages is: Arunachal Pradesh-455, Himachal Pradesh-75, Sikkim-46, Uttarakhand-51 and Ladakh (UT)-35.

The programme envisages focused areas of interventions in the select villages for creation of opportunities for livelihood generation through promotion of tourism and cultural heritage, skill development and entrepreneurship and development of cooperative societies, including agriculture/horticulture and cultivation of medicinal plants/herbs.

--IANS

rch/svn