Development of Strategies for Effective Implementation of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, the ambitious rural development program of Central Government of India was launched in 2014. Since its inception, there have been much hype about the unique characteristic of this program which involves adoption of villages by Members of Parliaments and transforming them into Adarsh Gram or Model Villages. It was a matter of interest to find out the status of implementation of the program and if any lacunae, developing strategies for its effective implementation. The strategies were grouped into four broad domains each having domain specific strategies under them. The four broad domains identified were convergence in identification of need, planning, technical expertise and funding. The broad domains were also ranked as well as the sub-domains within them based on average weight (W) calculated by adopting Alfares and Duffuaa method (2009). The strategy of convergence in funding (W=85.25) was ranked first as it obtained highest average weight thus suggesting its highest priority in the domain of convergence in identification of need. The strategy of convergence in planning (W=82.31) was deemed to be second most important. The strategy of convergence in technical expertise was third most important (W=81.04). The strategy of convergence in identification of was ranked fourth (W=75.99). This was because the main lacuna in effective implementation of SAGY at ground level was the shortage of fund because no separate funding was allotted to this program. It required convergence of existing development programs which was reported as the major constraint.