Dehradun, July 29 (IANS) The Vibrant Village program, focussed on creating development as well as employment opportunities through tourism and cultural heritage in select villages, particularly those near the frontiers, is yielding significant results.
Mana village, a high-altitude village in the border district of Chamoli in Uttarakhand, categorised among India’s ‘first villages’ has witnessed special emphasis on development opportunities and is also showing promising results.
The border village, holding strategic importance owing to its proximity to the India-Tibet border, has picked up momentum in development, making the basic amenities including roads, bridges, tourism which looked far-fetched and improbable until now.
Many local villagers, speaking to IANS, shared their first-hand experience on the scale-up in development opportunities, ranging from roads to drinking water to uninterrupted power supply.
Many of them said that they are directly benefiting from initiatives related to roads, electricity, water supply, telecommunications, tourism, and employment.
The villagers, which grappled with lack of basic amenities lately, are now happy and thrilled with new emerging picture of development.
The Vibrant Village Program has only given fillip to infrastructure build-up in the village but is also opening new livelihood opportunities for the locals.
Efforts are underway to expand road connectivity, electricity, drinking water, telecommunications, and other essential facilities in the village. This has resulted in better amenities for the villagers, making their lives easier despite living in the border region.
Local employment opportunities have also increased. The influx of tourists and pilgrims is boosting local businesses, homestays, handicrafts, and other self-employment activities, thereby creating new avenues of income for the villagers.
The Vibrant Village Programme has also proved pivotal in curbing migration from the border areas and containing the population ratio.
The programme envisages focussed areas of interventions in select villages for creation of opportunities for livelihood generation through promotion of tourism and cultural heritage, skill development and entrepreneurship and development of cooperative societies including agriculture, horticulture, cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs.
–IANS
mr/rad
