by s rameshmysuru the union ministry of social justice and empowerment has declared seven villages in chamarajanagar district as adarsh grams for holistic village developmentof these four fall in kollegal taluk including singanallur one of the ancestral villages of kannada matinee idol rajkumar the other villages are siddaihanapura mangala and cm samudra the other three villages are in chamarajanagar taluk namely honganur heggavadipura and h mukahalli based on the economic social and economic development index the department has declared these villages as adarsha gramthe union ministry of social justice and empowerment has chosen these villages for development under the pradhan mantri adarsh gram yojana pmagy for integrated development of scheduled castes the ministry has chosen these villages which have above 50 percent scheduled castetribes the ministry has released rs 156 crore in 201819 and rs 180 crore in 201920 to the department of social welfare which implemented the scheme in these villages to take up development works under the adarsh gram scheme the department of social welfare has ensured drinking water tap connections and toilet facilities to all households in these villagesit also brought children who had dropped out of schools back enrolled them in residential schools and hostels to continue their education it also provided nutrition foods to pregnant breastfeeding and other sick malnourished people in these villages after identifying themeligible beneficiaries were covered under social security schemes like widow pension disabled pension old age and other benefits provided by the government houses were also sanctioned to eligible beneficiaries under different housing schemes for homeless families solar and electricity supply were also provided to poor families under belaku yojane over 27000 villagers of these villages were brought under banking by opening their accounts in different banks besides also insured with life insurance cover skill development training was provided to unemployed men and women to take up selfemployment activities villagers were also sensitized about the importance of obtaining soil health cards for improvement of fertility of soil to enhance their livelihood besides protection of the environment said sourcesspeaking to toi chamarajanagar deputy director of social welfare mallikarjuna said that recently a team of officials from union ministry of social justice and empowerment visited the district to take stock of development works undertaken in these villages of the 10 ten villages chosen for development work they recommended the union ministry to declare these seven villages as adarsh gram after witnessing the slew of development works there villages which are covered with above 70 per cent benefits are declared as adarsh gram he saidthe selection of my village to develop under adarsh gram has helped several residents like me to obtain various government benefits like to have bank account insurance cover said mahadevaiah resident of honganur village of chamarajanagar district to toi