Uttar Pradesh Matribhumi Yojana

What is Matribhumi Yojana?

Matribhumi Yojana is a co-funding scheme of the Panchayati Raj Department of Uttar Pradesh under which any person or organisation can pay for a public asset in a village, and the state government adds a share of the cost from public funds. It was launched in 2024 and is administered through the Panchayati Raj Directorate at Aliganj, Lucknow, with a dedicated portal at mbhumi.upprd.in.

The name means "motherland", and the scheme's premise is straightforward: a large number of people who grew up in Uttar Pradesh villages now live in cities, in other states or abroad, and would put money into their own village if there were a clean, official route to do it. Matribhumi Yojana is that route.

Two things distinguish it from an ordinary donation:

• The state matches the money. The contributor funds 60 per cent of the approved project cost and the government funds the remaining 40 per cent. Every rupee a donor puts in commands roughly 67 paise of public money alongside it.
• The asset can be named after a person of the contributor's choosing, typically a parent or an ancestor. This is written into the scheme and is a large part of what drives participation.

What works can be built under Matribhumi Yojana?

Uttar Pradesh has kept the eligible list broad, covering most of what a gram panchayat would otherwise wait years in the queue for:

• Health, primary health centres, sub-centres, and health infrastructure.
• Child and women's services, anganwadi centres.
• Education and skills; libraries, smart classrooms in village schools, skill development centres.
• Sport and recreation, stadiums, gymnasiums, open-air gyms, playgrounds.
• Community facilities, community halls, marriage halls (barat ghar).
• Utilities — solar street lighting, solar power systems, drinking water supply works.
• Rural livelihoods: cattle breed improvement centres, milk collection centres, facilities supporting artisans.
• Emergency services; fire service stations.

A common thread runs through the list: these are fixed public assets on public land, owned by the gram panchayat once built and maintained by it thereafter. Matribhumi Yojana does not fund cash transfers to individuals, running costs, or anything that becomes private property.

Who can contribute under Matribhumi Yojana?

You can propose and fund a project if:

• You are an individual, including a person originally from Uttar Pradesh now living elsewhere in India or abroad.
• You are a registered organisation, a society, trust, company, firm or a corporate CSR programme.
• You can commit the 60 per cent contribution, in a lump sum or in agreed instalments.
• The gram panchayat agrees to the work and to the site.
• Land is available; panchayat or government land, free of dispute.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are looking for a personal benefit. Matribhumi Yojana is not an individual welfare scheme and no villager can claim money from it for themselves.
• You want to build on private land or create an asset that will remain private property.
• The gram panchayat has not consented, or the proposed site is under dispute or litigation.
• You cannot fund the full 60 per cent. The government share follows the contributor's deposits and will not cover a shortfall.
• You want the government to fund operating expenses rather than an asset.

This is the point readers most often get wrong, so it is worth stating twice: the applicant under Matribhumi Yojana is the donor, not the recipient.

What documents are required?

How to apply for Matribhumi Yojana

1. Open the official portal at mbhumi.upprd.in and complete the contributor registration, entering your name, contact details and identity information. Login credentials are issued after registration.
2. Log in and create a project proposal: choose the district, block and gram panchayat, select the type of work from the eligible list, describe the asset and enter the estimated cost.
3. Attach the gram panchayat's consent and the land availability details for the proposed site, and submit the proposal.
4. Wait for technical and administrative examination by the district panchayat administration, which checks the estimate, the site and the feasibility of the work.
5. On approval, deposit your 60 per cent contribution into the account the department specifies, either in a lump sum or in the instalment schedule agreed for the project.
6. The government releases its 40 per cent share and the work is executed through the panchayat's normal execution machinery, with progress recorded on the department's project monitoring system.
7. On completion, the asset is handed to the gram panchayat, and the naming agreed at approval is applied.

A contributor who cannot use the portal can approach the District Panchayat Raj Officer (DPRO) of the district concerned, who can guide the proposal into the system.

How is a Matribhumi project monitored?

The Panchayati Raj Department runs a Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) for Matribhumi Yojana, and project progress is tracked on the department's project monitoring system alongside the department's other works. A contributor can follow the physical and financial progress of the work they funded, which is the accountability that distinguishes this route from an informal donation to a village committee.

Because the state's money is involved, works follow the normal panchayat procurement and execution rules, the contributor pays for the asset but does not choose the contractor or bypass the technical sanction process.

Why proposals get rejected or stall

• No panchayat consent. A proposal without a gram panchayat resolution cannot proceed, however willing the donor.
• Land not available or disputed. The single commonest cause of stalled projects; settle the site question before proposing.
• Estimate not realistic. An estimate far below the technical sanction value will be revised, and the contributor's 60 per cent rises with it.
• Contribution not deposited on schedule, which holds up the matching government release and freezes the work.
• Work outside the eligible list, for example anything creating private property or funding recurring expenditure.
• Budget headroom exhausted in a district for the year, delaying the government share to the next cycle.

Where to get help

• Matribhumi Yojana helpline: 0522-3539400 and 8127947062.
• mbhumi.upprd.in, the official application and information portal.
• District Panchayat Raj Officer (DPRO) of the district where the village lies, for site, land and gram panchayat questions.
• Panchayati Raj Directorate, Aliganj, Lucknow, which administers the scheme and hosts the Project Monitoring Unit.
• Jansunwai portal at jansunwai.up.nic.in, for a formal grievance where a contributed project is not progressing.

Registering and proposing is free. A contributor should deposit money only into the government account the department specifies in the approval, never into a personal or intermediary account.

How to check your application status

A contributor does not need to wait for a phone call from the district office to know where a proposal stands. There are three practical ways to check, depending on whether the proposal is still in scrutiny or already under execution.

1. Online, through the contributor login on mbhumi.upprd.in

1. Go to mbhumi.upprd.in and log in with the credentials issued at registration.
2. Open the "My Proposals" or project dashboard section of the contributor account.
3. Each proposal shows its current stage: submitted, under technical and administrative examination, approved, contribution pending, work in progress, or completed.
4. Once a project is approved and contribution is deposited, the same dashboard reflects physical and financial progress as the panchayat's execution machinery updates it, so a contributor can see whether the work has actually started on the ground rather than only whether it was approved on paper.

2. Offline, through the District Panchayat Raj Officer (DPRO)

• If the portal shows no movement for an extended period, or if a contributor is not comfortable navigating the online dashboard, the DPRO of the district where the village lies can pull up the file directly and explain what stage it is at and what, if anything, is pending from the contributor's side (most commonly, a deposit instalment).
• This route is also the right one for an NRI contributor who registered online but wants a direct human update rather than relying on portal notifications that may not reach an overseas number reliably.

3. By helpline, for a quick check without logging in

• Call the Matribhumi Yojana helpline: 0522-3539400 or 8127947062 with the proposal or contributor registration number to hand. The helpline can confirm the broad status (under scrutiny, approved, awaiting deposit, in execution) even for a contributor who has not logged into the portal recently.

If a project shows no progress despite an approved status and a deposited contribution, that is the point to escalate rather than keep checking the dashboard: file a grievance on the Jansunwai portal (jansunwai.up.nic.in) naming the district, gram panchayat and proposal details, since a stalled approved project usually means an execution-side hold-up (contractor engagement, technical sanction delay, or budget release timing) that the portal dashboard alone will not explain.