ON April 10, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship border development programme – ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ (VVP) – a Rs 4,800-crore Central Government project that has many transformative elements. Foremost, it will help in the integrated development of villages adjoining the Indo-China border.
Second, it will help in better roads right to the villages—a last-mile connectivity objective (The scheme includes Rs 2,500 crore exclusively for road connectivity). Most important, it is a people-to-people project, as the Home Minister said on launching the scheme Reporting the inauguration of the scheme by the HM from Kibithoo, a border village in Anjaw of eastern Arunachal Pradesh (Kibithoo was also one of the theatres of the 1962 IndiaChina war), All India Radio said: “Shri Amit Shah said this programme will solve the problems of all the villages of the northern border where there is a danger of population migration to other places. He said that under the Vibrant Village Programme, Government will ensure all the Government schemes are 100 per cent implemented in these villages, thus making sure all the basic amenities are available for the people, like good infrastructure, connectivity, education, health and mainly employment opportunities.’’
Neutralising move
What is most commendable about this programme and the Home Minister’s visit is the alacrity and the speed with which the Prime Minister decided to neutralise the provocative Chinese move of announcing new names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh. The Government also demolished the Chinese ploy by stating that assigning “invented names” would not alter the fact that the state has been and shall always remain an integral part of India.
Infact, the Home Minister in multiple tweets urged fellow citizens to visit the border areas in large numbers to not just take in the beauty of the region but also send a message of solidarity with their fellow citizens.
“The ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ was earlier approved by the Centre under which 2,967 villages in 46 blocks of 19 districts abutting the northern border in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and Union Territory of Ladakh have been identified for comprehensive development,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on the eve of the visit.
The first phase – this developmentcum-connectivity push – will cover 662 villages, including 455 in Arunachal Pradesh. At its core, the
