Tuesday, 25 April 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has placed a signboard at the entrance of Mana village in Chamoli district, declaring it to be the first Indian village instead of the last village of India as it was popularly called. Mana is located near Badrinath and also near the Indo-Tibet border region. It will be recalled that while addressing a gathering at Mana in October last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami referring to Mana as the first Indian village and had said that now for him too all the border villages will be the nation’s first villages.
Dhami said that under Modi’s leadership, the border regions of the nation are actually becoming lively now for which the Vibrant Village programme has also been started. The aim of the Vibrant Village programme is to develop border villages, bringing about improvement in the lives of people living in such villages, encouraging local culture, traditional knowledge and heritage to exploit the potential for tourism and developing sustainable enterprises on the idea of one village one product through community based organisations, cooperative committees and non governmental organisations. Dhami said that the Vibrant Village work plans have been created by the district administration with the assistance of Gram Panchayats. These schemes will boost opportunities in production and marketing of local products, herbs and various agricultural and horticultural produce. Woolen apparel is also being prepared in such areas as part of the one village one product scheme. Dhami said that this programme will prove helpful in mitigating migration from border areas while also enabling the residents of such areas to continue playing their role in the security of the nation.
