Which one of the following is the earliest launched scheme of the Government of India?
- (a)Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana
- (b)Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
- (c)Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana
- (d)Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana
Correct — B, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. It was launched on 25 December 2000 by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to give all-weather road connectivity to habitations that had none — above 500 people in the plains and above 250 in hill, desert and tribal areas. The other three are all products of 2014. Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana was launched on 11 October 2014, the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan; Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana is the 2014 restructuring that brought the rural and urban livelihoods missions under one name; and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, the placement-linked skilling arm of the rural livelihoods mission, dates from the same year. So a fourteen-year gap separates the answer from its nearest rival.
- (a)Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana — A 2014 renaming and restructuring of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission and the National Urban Livelihoods Mission under a single Antyodaya banner. Its ancestry runs back to SGSY of 1999, but the scheme under this name is fourteen years later than PMGSY.
- (c)Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana — Launched on 11 October 2014, under which each Member of Parliament adopts a gram panchayat and develops it as a model village. The date is fixed by Jayaprakash Narayan's birth anniversary, which makes it easy to place.
- (d)Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana — Also 2014. It is the placement-linked skill training programme for rural youth run under the rural livelihoods mission, and any scheme carrying the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya name belongs to that year's cluster.
PMGSY is a rural connectivity programme of the Ministry of Rural Development. It was designed as a one-time effort to connect unconnected habitations by an all-weather road with the necessary culverts and cross-drainage, and it works through State Rural Roads Development Agencies with a National Quality Monitor system for inspection. Later phases added upgradation of existing rural roads and consolidation of the network.
Chronology questions on schemes are best handled by learning the clusters rather than the individual dates. Almost everything with the Deen Dayal or Deendayal name, and the Adarsh Gram programme, belongs to 2014-15; PMGSY, along with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, belongs to the 2000-01 group. That alone answers the question without recalling a single day. Present-day note on the funding: PMGSY was fully centrally funded at the start, but from November 2015 the cost has been shared 60:40 between the Centre and the States, which is why it is now described as a centrally sponsored scheme.
- PMGSY was launched on 25 December 2000 by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
- Its target is all-weather connectivity for habitations above 500 people in the plains and above 250 in hill, desert and tribal areas.
- Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana was launched on 11 October 2014, on Jayaprakash Narayan's birth anniversary.
- Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana both date from 2014.
- PMGSY began as a fully centrally funded programme; from November 2015 the cost has been shared 60:40 between the Centre and the States.
- Assuming a scheme named after Deen Dayal Upadhyaya must be old; the whole family dates from 2014-15.
- Treating PMGSY as still fully centrally funded; the sharing pattern changed in 2015.
As an earliest-launched or chronology item across four schemes, or as a scheme-to-objective match.
Which of the following statements about the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana are correct? 1. It is part of Government of India's poverty reduction strategy. 2. It is a centrally sponsored scheme for rural development. 3. It provides connectivity in rural areas. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1, 2 and 3
- (b) 1 and 3 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1 and 2 only
Answer(a) 1, 2 and 3
The same scheme a year later, tested on what it is rather than when it began. All three descriptions hold: it sits inside the poverty-reduction strategy, it is centrally sponsored, and connectivity is its whole point.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana aims primarily at which one of the following?
- (a)Housing for the rural poor
- (b)All-weather road connectivity to unconnected habitations
- (c)Piped drinking water to every rural household
- (d)Electrification of un-electrified rural households
Answer(b) All-weather road connectivity to unconnected habitations — the thresholds are 500 people in the plains and 250 in hill, desert and tribal areas.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, launched in 2014, a Member of Parliament is expected to
- (a)build roads in the constituency out of MPLADS funds
- (b)adopt and develop a gram panchayat as a model village
- (c)chair the District Planning Committee
- (d)conduct the social audit of rural schemes
Answer(b) adopt and develop a gram panchayat as a model village — the scheme was launched on 11 October 2014.