Vibrant Villages Plan To Be Merged With PM Gati Shakti

• Posted on April 25, 2023
• Daily Current Affairs

Vibrant Villages Plan To Be Merged With PM Gati Shakti

Context:

The Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP) of the Centre, which intends to enhance infrastructure and open up villages along the China border to tourists, would be merged with the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti megaproject.

Points to Ponder:

• To discourage border population migration, the Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP) attempts to enhance infrastructure and boost tourism in villages near the China border.
• The VVP has been integrated into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Gati Shakti megaproject, which brings together 16 ministries for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.
• Gujarat’s Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG-N) will offer satellite pictures and GIS mapping of the projects for real-time monitoring of infrastructure and land-use changes.
• The VVP will encompass 2,967 villages in 46 border blocks of 19 districts throughout four states and one union territory, with 662 villages given priority.
• The programme has been budgeted for the fiscal years 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26, with 2,500 crore set aside for road building.
• The Gati Shakti project aims to break down operational barriers and encourage integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connection projects across departments.

Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP) 

• The Finance Minister’s Budget Speech 2022 unveiled the Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP).
• The initiative envisions covering border settlements on the Northern border with sparse populations, low connectivity, and infrastructure, which are frequently left out of development gains.
• VVP proposes the convergence of existing schemes.
• The communities on the northern border that will be covered by VVP are now being decided.
• The Government of India is implementing the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) through State Governments/UT Administrations in habitations located within 0-10 km. of the first habitation at the international border in 460 border blocks of 117 border districts in 16 States and 2 UTs, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura 
• The annual action plans of the States/UTs, which include works connected to village infrastructure such as roads and bridges, health, education, agriculture, sports, drinking water and sanitation, and so on, are examined and authorised under BADP rules in effect.