The Union Cabinet approved on Friday the Vibrant Villages Programme II, a central sector scheme to help create "safe, secured and vibrant land borders", according to an official press release on Friday.
VVP II is a programme that aims to help in the comprehensive development of the villages located in the blocks touching on international land borders, other than the northern border already covered under Vibrant Villages I.
With a total outlay of Rs. 6,839 crore, the programme is to be implemented in select strategic villages in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal till fiscal 2028–29.
The objective of the programme is to create better living conditions and adequate livelihood opportunities to ensure prosperous and safe borders, control trans-border crime and assimilate the border population with the nation and inculcate them "as eyes and ears of the border guarding forces".
The programme shall provide funds for infrastructure development within the village or a cluster of villages, value chain development (through cooperatives, self-help-groups, etc), border specific outreach activity, education infrastructure like Smart classes, development of tourism circuits and works/projects to create diverse and sustainable livelihood opportunities in the border areas, the release said.
The interventions would be border-specific, state and village specific, based on village action plans prepared in a collaborative approach.
All-weather road connectivity for these villages shall be undertaken under the already approved Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana Phase 4 under the Ministry of Rural Development. A high-powered committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary shall consider suitable relaxations in schematic guidelines for effective implementation of schemes in the border areas.
The programme aims to achieve saturation in existing individual and household level welfare schemes in the identified villages under convergence as per scheme norms. 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 electrification through convergence under existing scheme norms.
The programme will also organise activities including fairs and festivals, awareness camps, celebration of national days, regular visits by ministers, senior government officers from central and state/union territory governments and night stays in such villages. This is expected to boost the tourism potential and promote the local culture and heritage of these villages.
The technology would be leveraged and information databases like PM Gati Shakti is to be used for effective implementation of the project.
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