177 Development Projects Inaugurated in Sonbhadra

• 09 Mar 2024

Why in News?

Recently, the Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum & Natural Gas, virtually inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 177 development projects in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh.

Key Points

• The projects worth Rs 10 crore 41 lakh are funded from Shri Puri’s MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development) fund.
• Sonbhadra is among the top five districts out of 112 in the overall performance of the Aspirational Districts Programme continuously from January 2018 to March 2024.
• The minister assumed responsibility for overseeing Sonbhadra’s development initiatives in 2018 under NITI Aayog’s Aspirational Districts Programme.

MPLAD Scheme

• It is a Central Sector Scheme which was announced in December 1993.
• Objective:
  • To enable MPs to recommend works of developmental nature with emphasis on the creation of durable community assets in the areas of drinking water, primary education, public health, sanitation and roads, etc. primarily in their Constituencies.
    • Since June 2016, the MPLAD funds can also be used for implementation of the schemes such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), conservation of water through rain water harvesting and Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana, etc.

Aspirational Districts Programme

• It was launched in 2018 which aims to transform districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas.
• Aspirational Districts are those districts in India that are affected by poor socio-economic indicators.