Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAAGY) — Meghalaya

What is Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana in Meghalaya?

Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAAGY) is a Government of India village development programme for Scheduled Tribe majority villages, listed and implemented in Meghalaya by the Community and Rural Development Department (C&RD), Government of Meghalaya.

According to the C&RD Department's scheme page, PMAAGY runs from 2021-22 to 2025-26 and covers villages having at least 50 per cent Scheduled Tribe population and 500 Scheduled Tribe persons, with a focus on infrastructure development. The department lists the priority sectors as health, nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, education, roads and telecom or mobile connectivity.

PMAAGY matters more in Meghalaya than most states because Meghalaya is a Scheduled Tribe majority state. The great majority of its rural settlements, in the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills; clear the 50 per cent ST population test comfortably. The binding constraint in the State is usually the second test: 500 or more Scheduled Tribe residents, which many small hill hamlets do not reach.

Like its sibling schemes, PMAAGY is built on convergence. It does not create a new personal entitlement. Each gap identified in a village is first matched to an existing central or state scheme that already funds that kind of work, and support is used to fill only what no running scheme can meet.

One caution on timing. The period the C&RD Department records for PMAAGY, 2021-22 to 2025-26, has now closed. Whether the programme continues in a further phase, and on what terms, is a question to put to your C&RD Block office rather than to assume from an older page.

Who is covered by PMAAGY in Meghalaya, and who cannot apply?

PMAAGY covers:

• Villages with at least 50 per cent Scheduled Tribe population, measured from Census population data.
• Villages with 500 or more Scheduled Tribe residents. Both tests must be met. A village that is 90 per cent ST but has only 200 ST residents does not qualify on the second limb.
• All residents of a selected village. A road, a water supply line, a school building or a mobile tower serves the whole settlement, whatever any individual household's category.

You cannot apply, and are not eligible, if you are looking for a personal benefit:

• Individuals cannot apply. PMAAGY has no application form, no online registration and no beneficiary list. No official or agent may collect money for enrolling a person or a village.
• PMAAGY makes no cash payment to any household. There is no monthly amount and no lump sum credited under this scheme.
• A village cannot nominate itself. Selection is made on Census population data at the central level.
• Villages below either threshold are not eligible; under 50 per cent ST population, or fewer than 500 ST residents.
• Being a Scheduled Tribe person in an unselected village gives you no claim under PMAAGY. The scheme is village-based, not person-based.
• A household in a selected village is still not automatically entitled to a house, a toilet or a pension. Those come from PMAY-G, the sanitation mission and NSAP respectively, under their own eligibility rules.

What does PMAAGY actually deliver in a village?

The C&RD Department's list of priority sectors translates on the ground into a recognisable set of works:

None of these are PMAAGY inventions. Each is delivered by the department that owns the parent scheme, which is why a resident chasing a specific work should be talking to that department and not to PMAAGY as such.

How does a village get taken up under PMAAGY?

PMAAGY has no citizen application, so the real process is administrative:

1. Census-based identification. Villages meeting the twin test — at least 50 per cent Scheduled Tribe population and at least 500 Scheduled Tribe residents: are identified from Census population figures and taken up in the notified phase.
2. Gap analysis of the selected village. The village's current position is recorded sector by sector across health, nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, education, roads and mobile connectivity.
3. Preparation of the Village Development Plan. The C&RD Block office, with the village institution; in Meghalaya usually the Dorbar Shnong or the Village Council or the Village Employment Council, writes the plan: each work, the department responsible, the funding scheme and the timeline.
4. Convergence and sanction. Line departments confirm which VDP items their own schemes will finance; the residual gaps are put up for support under PMAAGY.
5. Execution and review. Works are executed by the owning department, and progress is reviewed at Block and district level against the sector gaps recorded at the start.

A village that believes it meets both population tests but has not been covered should submit a written representation, with its Census figures and a village institution resolution, to the Block Development Officer, copied to the District Rural Development Agency.

How can I check what PMAAGY is doing in my village?

1. Ask the C&RD Block office for the Village Development Plan for your village and read the sector-wise list of works.
2. Ask which parent scheme funds each pending work, and note the department and the sanction reference.
3. Follow up with that department, at Block and then district level, because the money and the tender sit there, not with PMAAGY.
4. Record the follow-up through your village institution. A Dorbar Shnong or Village Council resolution noting a listed but unstarted work is the most effective written record a village can produce.

Common misunderstandings about PMAAGY

• "PMAAGY pays tribal families a monthly amount." It does not. There is no personal payment under this scheme.
• "Every ST village in Meghalaya is automatically covered." The 500-person ST threshold excludes many small hamlets.
• "You can register for PMAAGY online." There is no citizen registration.
• "PMAAGY and PMAGY are the same scheme." PMAAGY is for Scheduled Tribe majority villages; PMAGY is for Scheduled Caste majority villages, and in Meghalaya PMAGY reaches only four listed villages.
• "Selection guarantees every work in the plan." A VDP is limited by what the parent schemes can fund in a given year; unfunded items carry forward.

Where to raise a PMAAGY grievance in Meghalaya

• Block level: the Block Development Officer of your C&RD Block, the first point for any work listed in a Village Development Plan.
• District level: the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) of your district.
• State level: the Directorate of Community and Rural Development, Government of Meghalaya, whose departmental contacts are published at megcnrd.gov.in.
• Parent scheme route: for a specific house, toilet, road, water connection or school building, use that scheme's own grievance mechanism.

PMAAGY costs a citizen nothing. There is no fee, no form and no registration, and any demand for payment in the name of village selection should be reported in writing to the Block Development Officer.