With a renewed focus on strengthening frontier regions, the Union Government has expanded the scope of the Vibrant Villages Programme to include key border areas of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, aiming to boost infrastructure, livelihoods and population retention in strategically important villages.
The initiative, which initially targeted northern border regions under Vibrant Villages Programme-I, has now been scaled up through a second phase to cover additional international border areas, bringing renewed development attention to remote and underserved habitations in the two Union Territories.
This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai today in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
The Minister informed the house that the Government approved the Vibrant Villages Programme-I (VVP-I) as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th February, 2023 with financial outlay of ₹4,800 Crore for FY 2022-23 to 2025-26 for comprehensive development of the select villages in 46 blocks abutting northern border in 19 districts in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and UT of Ladakh. Initially, 662 border villages have been identified for comprehensive development on priority under the programme.
The programme envisages focused areas of interventions in the select villages for creation of opportunities for livelihood generation through promotion of tourism & cultural heritage, skill development & entrepreneurship and development of cooperative societies including agriculture/horticulture, cultivation of medicinal plants/herbs, etc.
The interventions also include providing road connectivity to unconnected villages, village infrastructures, health facility, education infrastructure, energy including renewable energy, television & telecom connectivity. The objective of the programme is to create sufficient incentives for people to stay on in the selected villages.
Till date, under VVP-I, 263 projects with an outlay of ₹116 crore have been approved for promotion of tourism which include development of viewpoints, adventure tourism, eco-tourism, eco-resorts, trek routes and tourist centers.
Furthering the programme, the Government has approved the Vibrant Villages Programme-II (VVP-II), as a Central Sector Scheme, with a total outlay of ₹ 6839 crores till the Financial Year 2028-29 for comprehensive development of identified villages located in blocks abutting international land borders(ILBs), other than the Northern Border already covered under VVP-I, in the States/UTs of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, J&K, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The State of Tamil Nadu is not covered under VVP-I and VVP-II.