-Arun Kumar Singh-
Jayapur Village in Banaras has been in the news since the Prime Minister Narendra Modi adopted it under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana that he launched in 2014. Immediately after adopting the village, Shri Modi initiated work of building pucca houses for 13 landless families belonging to Musahar community. Earlier, they used to live in huts made at the Panchayat land and worked in the fields of village farmers. On the initiative of Shri Modi houses for them were built at the same land they lived. The one room house consists of a kitchen, an open space and a toilet. Every house has been equipped with a solar panel over rooftop which ensures round the clock electricity supply. All the houses have been built in a row and a park has also been developed in front of them.
Atal Nagar, the colony set up for underprivileged has been named after Bharat Ratna Atal Behari Vajpayee. “I spent half of my life living in misery and sleeping under open sky. This home has come as a silver ray of hope,” said Sukhram who got the house, while expressing his joy. After Modiji adopted this village, many individual professionals and private companies have also volunteered to make it an ideal village.
The village, with a population of 4,200 persons, has a total of 811 families. “The picture of the village has changed only in two years. There is a post office, branch of a bank, dispensary, Anganwadi Kendra and many other facilities for which the villagers had been waiting and fighting for decades,” points out village chief Narayan Patel adding that two solar power plants with the capacity of 25 KV each have been installed in the village and there are sufficient street lights also. Now the villagers have regular bus service for Banaras which has benefitted the students and the working people. Girls have also started going to the city for higher education, which was not possible earlier. “Now only two types of works are pending—building toilets and ensuring water supply to all. Around 80 per cent work on it has been completed and it will be a reality shortly. About 500 toilets have been built and 100 more are under construction. Rest of the families already have toilets. An over head water tank is under construction with the capacity of two lakh liter.
There is a good team of local people, which actively participates in developmental activities. This has helped in proper implementation of the government projects.
Jayapur, Banaras, Uttar Pradesh
Location: 30 km from Banaras
Population: 4,200
Major Initiatives
* Pucca houses for landless labourers equipped with a kitchen, open space, toilet and solar panel on rooftop
* Two solar power plants with the capacity of 25 KV each to provide uninterrupted electricity supply
* Work on providing toilets to all families and also ensuring water supply to be finished shortly
