CM Fadnavis lauds rural transformers

Mumbai: Praising the role of ‘gram parivartaks’ (village transformers) in shaping the rural economy, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on the occasion of Republic Day said financially em-powering six lakh villages would transform the nation. He also released Katha Parivart-anachi, a book of stories of rural transformation at Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan.

A thousand villages were selected under this Village Social Transformation Programme (VSTP), which is being jointly undertaken by the state and corporate houses. The chief minister felicitated the village transformers, who had been appointed for each village.

Mr Fadnavis said that there are 40,000 villages in Maharashtra and six lakh villages exist in the country. In order to bring social and economic reforms in these villages, every section of society should take initiatives, he said.

The chief minister said that the programme, which was started two years back, is successful due to the efforts of gram parivartaks and people’s participation. Gram parivartaks have done the work of taking the government’s schemes to the people on ground level.

With the help of corporate social responsibility fund of the corporate companies, the works are being carried out in these villages, he added. Gram parivartaks are the “soul” of this programme and that other villages too would take inspiration from the successful programme and strive to transform themselves, he said.