New Delhi: After the smart cities mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) aimed at making villages smart and growth centres of the nation.

“Today, the rurban mission is being initiated. Some people say if there can be a smart city, then why not a smart village? This mission is towards making villages smart. Rurban is when the city meets the village. Development should be such which has the soul of the village, but the facilities of an urban city," Modi said while launching the scheme in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh.

“From now, can we start to identify gram panchayats that are growing at a fast pace and develop them through a cluster approach? We hope to build 100 of these this year itself," he said.

He said four such clusters will be developed in Chhattisgarh.

The SPMRM is an ambitious attempt to transform rural areas into “economically, socially and physically sustainable spaces", or smart villages “which would trigger overall development in the region", according to the rural development ministry.

The cabinet had in September approved the project with an outlay of ₹ 5,142.08 crore. The scheme was announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the government’s first budget in 2014.

The mission aims to create 300 such rurban growth clusters over the next three years.

The funding for rurban clusters will be through various schemes. The SPMRM will provide additional funding of up to 30% of the project cost per cluster as critical gap funding (CGF) as part of the central share.

According to Census 2011 data, 69% of India’s population, or around 833 million people, lived in rural areas, against 31%, or 377.1 million people, in urban areas. It is projected that the latter figure will jump to 50% by 2050.

“It is true that people are moving from our villages with great speed. They want a certain quality of life—good education, healthcare, electricity, Internet and entertainment options. The governments of the time didn’t think about how these people will settle in the city and how basic necessities will be provided. With this mission, this government has thought of a way to tackle that," Modi said.

Through the development of rurban growth clusters, the scheme aims to catalyse the overall regional growth, which would benefit both rural and urban areas of the country, by strengthening rural areas and “de-burdening" urban areas—hence leading to balanced regional development and national growth, the rural development ministry says on its website.

Census 2011 data shows the inequalities in basic amenities between rural and urban India. While 93% of urban households have electricity, only 55% of rural households have it. While 71% of urban households have access to piped water connections, the figure is only 35% for rural households. Only 31% of rural households have access to toilets, while 81% of urban households have latrines.

The smart villages would be well-delineated areas with a layout prepared following the planning norms that would be duly notified by the states and Union territories. The villages “will be geographically contiguous gram panchayats with a population of about 25,000-50,000 in plain and coastal areas and 5,000-15,000 in desert, hilly or tribal areas. There would be a separate approach for selection of clusters in tribal and non-tribal districts," the rural development ministry said in a note on its website.

For the selection of clusters, the ministry is looking at factors like demography, economy, tourism, pilgrimage significance and transportation corridor impact.

To ensure a standard of development, 14 components have been included in a list of parameters: skill development training linked to economic activities, agro-processing, storage and warehousing, digital literacy, sanitation, provision of piped water supply, solid and liquid waste management, village streets and drains, streetlights, fully equipped mobile health units, upgrading school infrastructure, village road connectivity, electronic delivery of citizen centric services, public transport and LPG gas connections.

“India cannot be run on 50 big cities. If we have to provide employment and economic growth, we need to take this to our villages. Not just the gram panchayat, but the villages close by will also develop," Modi said.

However, experts say the mission is an old promise and funding will be key. “This is old wine in a new bottle. As a concept, this has been there for 70 years at least. Development of infrastructure, employment have been made earlier also. It depends on how much money they are willing to put in its implementation and monitoring. Funding will be a constraint," said N.C. Saxena, former secretary in the rural development ministry.

Modi said that the government is taking a new direction of development outside of Delhi and bringing it to the doorstep of villages and tribal communities.

“This government is for the poor, Dalits, adivasis, oppressed and deprived sections of society. It is for the person standing in the last row," Modi said.

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