Minister of Commerce & Industry, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman visited her adopted villages – Pedhamayanavanilanka & Toorputallu in West Goadavari district of Andhra Pradesh and dedicated various projects to  the two villages, completing one year of Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana in the two villages.

In the last one year, following projects have been completed under various sectors :

Drinking water : Improving the quality of drinking water

On account of being located on the sea coast, the two adopted villages were forced to drink water with high salt content. In order to tackle this problem and provide them with purest form of  drinking water :

(1) Funded by MPLADS funds, RO water treatment plant (3000 LPH) at Toorputallu was inaugurated on 8th April,2015

(2) Funded by MPLADS funds, RO water  treatment plant (4000 LPH)  at Pedhamayanvanilanka was  inaugurated on 17^th Oct, 2015

(3) Funded by MPLADS funds, Second RO water treatment plant ( 3000 LPH) at Toorputallu  was  inaugurated on 17th October,2015

 Sanitation& Cleanliness: Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan

 (4)  Bio-digester based toilets:

• The two adopted villages are the first villages in the country to have individual Bio- digester based toilets developed by DRDO
• A pilot project with around 44 bio-digester based toilets funded under CSR of Jyothy Labs was completed on 8^th April,2015 when these bio-digesters were  dedicated to the two villages.  The bio digester toilets have received an overwhelming response from the villagers.
• On 27^th August,2015 , MS Swaminathan Foundation conducted a third party review of  the performance of  bio-digesters and concluded that the bio-digester toilets were indeed functioning well and that there was an increasing demand for bio-digester based toilets in rest of the households.
• Bio- digester based toilet is the next age Sanitation Technology which does not require Sewage system, does not pollute water , recharges the ground water and saves government resources by eliminating the need for maintenance of sewage system. No evacuation of bio digester tank for  lifetime. Hence, eliminating  manual scavenging in any form (as  night soil, as a dried  manure in single and twin pit toilets ). The effluent water is free of any disease carrying pathogens,  free of odour and colourless. Effluent water is safe. Additionally, it recharges water table with clean water.

 (5) Integrated Solid Waste Management Program

•   An Integrated Solid waste management program for the two villages was  inaugurated on 7th April,2015
•   Each household was given dustbins
•  Sanitation supervisors were employed  to collect waste from each household in the two villages
•   These supervisors were equipped with tricycles to collect the waste from each household
•   A designated dumping yard was earmarked
•   The collected  waste is being now dumped at the  designated Dumping Yard

(6) Community Infrastructure

 Multipurpose Disaster Relief Center

• A multipurpose cyclone relief building funded by the World Bank  was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Minister on 17^th October,2015. This center will act as a disaster relief center for the adopted village during the time of cyclonic disturbances and for  rest of the year will be used as a center for computer training, skill development center for women and for other social gatherings.   

 (7) Education

• Class X students of the two villages had to walk between 5-7 kms to reach their examination center for Board Exams. On 13th Feb, 2015 an examination center was established in Toorputallu  for Class X students of the two villages so that they do not have to walk miles to appear  for their examinations

 (8) Financial security :

• Special Camps were organised between 16th- 18th November in the two villages to ensure that all the households are covered under Jhan Dhan Yojana and AADHAR Scheme .
• Today,  every household in the two villages by and large has at-least one bank account
• Both the villages have  100 percent AADHAR linkage
• Special camps were organized by Vijaya Bank in the month of May,2015 to enroll with the Financial Security schemes ( Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Bima Suraksha Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana) recently announced in the general budget 2015 . Approximately  70% of the villagers have been registered with these schemes.

 Clean Energy

(9) Solar Lanterns

• 3500 Solar Lanterns for all the households in the two adopted villages were distributed on 17^th Oct, 2015 .
• Solar lanterns are of particular utility in these two villages because of the majority of population being that of fishermen who often  venture out in the sea at late night
• Solar lanterns developed by SECI & NREDCAP, Andhra Pradesh also have facility to charge the mobile phones

Skill development

 (10) Aqua culture

• MS Swaminathan foundation has volunteered to get involved in the development of the two villages and since August, 2015 has been conducting studies to evolve a comprehensive mechanism of increasing the quality and the quantity of aquaculture in the two villages.

(11) CC Roads

• Funded by MPLADS funds, 4 highest priority CC Roads were provided in the two villages

Village development initiatives expand integrated infrastructure, sanitation and financial inclusion while adding clean energy and disaster resilience services. Implementation of village development projects under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana delivered multiple RO water treatment plants funded by MPLADS to address saline drinking water, introduced individual bio digester toilets developed by a defence research organisation with CSR support and third party validation, and established an integrated solid waste management system with household collection and a designated dumping yard. A multipurpose cyclone relief centre was commissioned for disaster resilience and community training, while financial inclusion camps achieved near universal bank account and Aadhaar linkage and facilitated enrolment in pension and insurance schemes.