Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) — Meghalaya

What is Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana in Meghalaya?

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), also written Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, is a Government of India village development programme run in Meghalaya by the Community and Rural Development Department (C&RD), Government of Meghalaya.

According to the C&RD Department's scheme page, SAGY "aims at instilling certain values in the villages" so that they become models for surrounding villages, and the Members of Parliament of the State select the villages to be developed. The idea is to use the leadership, convening power and constituency reach of an MP to lift one village at a time to a demonstrably higher standard of infrastructure, services and community life.

SAGY is unusual among rural schemes in one important respect: it is a planning and convergence programme, not a funding programme. The Ministry of Rural Development's SAGY framework does not release a separate per-village grant. Everything in a SAGY village is paid for by existing schemes: rural housing, roads, water supply, sanitation, electrification, school and health infrastructure, livelihood missions, plus the MP's own MPLADS entitlement and any voluntary, philanthropic or CSR contribution the MP can attract.

The national SAGY portal maintained by the Department of Rural Development reports 3,361 gram panchayats selected, 2,63,138 projects planned under Village Development Plans and 2,35,918 projects completed.

Who does SAGY cover in Meghalaya, and who cannot apply?

SAGY covers:

• Villages selected by a sitting Member of Parliament of Meghalaya, whether from the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha.
• Every resident of the selected village, without any income test, caste criterion or land requirement. Once a village is taken up, the whole settlement is the unit of development.
• Village institutions. The Dorbar Shnong, Village Council or Village Employment Council, depending on the area, which are the bodies through which planning and community mobilisation happen in Meghalaya's largely Sixth Schedule rural areas.

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

• Individuals cannot apply to SAGY. There is no application form, no online registration and no beneficiary list. Any person or agent offering to "get your name added to SAGY" for a fee is running a scam.
• A village cannot self-nominate. Villages do not apply; MPs select them.
• Households are not eligible for cash. SAGY transfers no money to any bank account. Where a SAGY village gets a house, a toilet or a pension, that comes from the parent scheme: PMAY-G, Swachh Bharat Mission, NSAP: under its own eligibility rules, not from SAGY.
• An MP's own village, or their spouse's village, is excluded from selection under the SAGY framework, to keep the programme from becoming a personal constituency project.

How to get a village taken up under SAGY in Meghalaya

Because SAGY is an MP-led selection, the route is representation and planning, not application. The realistic steps for a village that wants to be considered are:

1. Have the village institution pass a written resolution. The Dorbar Shnong, Village Council or equivalent body records what the village lacks, road connectivity, safe drinking water, sanitation, school or health infrastructure, and what it can contribute in land, labour or local management.
2. Route the resolution through the Block. Submit it to the Block Development Officer (BDO) of your C&RD Block, who can place it before the District Rural Development Agency and add the Block's own assessment.
3. Place a representation before the Member of Parliament. Send the same resolution, with the Block's endorsement, to the MP for the constituency, since the C&RD Department states that MPs of the State select the villages.
4. If selected, participate in the Village Development Plan. A Charge Officer is designated for the village and holds participatory planning meetings. The village must attend, list its priorities in order, and agree a realistic time frame for each work.
5. Track the plan through the implementing departments. Every activity in the VDP is mapped to a parent scheme; follow up with the department that owns that scheme, not with SAGY, because SAGY itself holds no money.

What actually gets done in a SAGY village?

SAGY works in domains rather than in a fixed list of items, because the plan is built from what a particular village lacks. In Meghalaya's rural context the recurring priorities in village plans are:

• Connectivity — village approach roads, footbridges and culverts, largely through rural roads programmes and MGNREGA.
• Drinking water and sanitation: piped supply, spring-shed protection, household toilets and solid waste management.
• Housing, pucca houses under PMAY-G for eligible households.
• Education and health: school building repair, classrooms, anganwadi centres, sub-centre facilities and immunisation coverage.
• Livelihoods: self-help groups, skilling and enterprise support through the Meghalaya State Rural Livelihood Society.
• Social development: full enrolment in social security pensions, functioning village institutions, and community assets such as playgrounds and community halls.

None of these are new SAGY entitlements. They are existing entitlements delivered to a single village in a coordinated push, which is precisely what "convergence" means in the SAGY framework.

How is SAGY implemented and monitored in Meghalaya?

Implementation in Meghalaya runs through the Community and Rural Development Department, whose Directorate is headed by a Director and which works through District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA) and C&RD Block offices. The department also works alongside the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), the State Rural Employment Society (SRES) and the Meghalaya State Rural Livelihood Society (MSRLS), all of which own schemes that a Village Development Plan draws on.

For each selected village a Charge Officer is designated to prepare and drive the VDP. Progress is reported on the national SAGY portal, where projects planned and completed are recorded panchayat by panchayat, which is what makes the national totals of 2,63,138 planned and 2,35,918 completed projects possible.

A practical point specific to Meghalaya: much of the State's rural area falls under the Sixth Schedule, where traditional institutions such as the Dorbar Shnong and the Village Councils, rather than statutory gram panchayats, are the functioning village bodies. SAGY planning in the State therefore happens with these institutions, and a village that keeps proper minutes of its Dorbar resolutions is in a much stronger position when a plan has to be defended or a work has to be claimed from a line department.

How can I check what is happening in a SAGY village?

1. Ask the Charge Officer for a copy of the Village Development Plan. The VDP lists each work, the scheme that will fund it and the expected timeline.
2. Check the national SAGY portal at saanjhi.dord.gov.in, which publishes panchayat-wise VDP reports and the list of gram panchayats identified under SAGY-I and SAGY-II.
3. Raise pending works at the Block. Where a VDP item has stalled, the question is which parent scheme owns it; take it to that department's Block or district office.
4. Use the village institution. A written Dorbar Shnong or Village Council resolution recording that a listed work has not started carries more weight with a Block office than an individual complaint.

Common misunderstandings about SAGY

• "SAGY gives money to villagers." It does not. SAGY has no cash transfer and no beneficiary account.
• "You can register online for SAGY." You cannot. There is no citizen registration.
• "SAGY replaces MGNREGA or PMAY-G." It does not. It coordinates them.
• "Once selected, a village gets everything." A VDP is limited by what the parent schemes can fund in that year; unfunded items carry forward.
• "Any village can demand selection." Selection is the Member of Parliament's decision, and the framework bars the MP's own village and their spouse's village.

Where to raise a SAGY grievance in Meghalaya

• Block level: the Block Development Officer of your C&RD Block, who is the first point for any work listed in a VDP.
• District level: the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA).
• State level: the Directorate of Community and Rural Development, Government of Meghalaya, which publishes departmental contacts at megcnrd.gov.in.
• Parent scheme route: for a specific work, a house, a road, a water connection: complain under that scheme's own grievance mechanism, because that is where the sanction and the money sit.

Nothing under SAGY costs a citizen anything. There is no fee, no form and no registration, and no one is authorised to collect money in the name of getting a village adopted.