Centre launches Azadi Se Antyodaya Tak campaign
Ravi S Singh
New Delhi, April 28
The Centre on Thursday launched a 90-day campaign, “Azadi Se Antyodaya Tak”, with a mission to saturate 75 districts, including three each from Haryana and Punjab and one from Himachal Pradesh, with beneficiary schemes of nine Central Ministries.
These districts are from 28 states/UTs.
Celebrating the spirit of the year-long Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM), the identified districts are aligned with the birth place of 99 freedom fighters.
The three districts in Haryana are Panipat, Rohtak, and Bhiwani which are associated, respectively, with Rati Ram Deshbandhu Gupta, Chhotu Ram and Pandit Nekiram Sharma.
Those from Punjab are Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar which are associated, respectively, with Teja Singh Sutantar, Harnam Singh Tundilat and Banta Singh.
The lone district from Himachal Pradesh is Kangra which is associated with Baba Kanshi Ram.
Inaugurating the campaign, Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh said that the goal of the campaign is to take up 17 select schemes with direct assistance to beneficiaries in saturation mode, reaching out to the person at the bottom of the pyramid in rural areas by each of the participating ministries/departments.
The 75 districts, marginally lagging behind in the development parameters, have been shortlisted through MPCE (Monthly per Capita Indicators) and D5/D7 SECC-2011 (Socio-Economic Caste Census) data.
Azadi Se Antyodaya Tak campaign is a concerted effort of several Union Ministries which will be anchored by the Union Rural Development Ministry.
They include the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Labour and Empowerment Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
