Government launches Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhayay Vigyan Gram Sankul
Pariyojana
The Minister
of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest &
Climate Change, Dr. Harshvardhan today launched “Pt Deen Dayal Upadhayay Vigyan Gram Sankul Pariyojana” which will experiment and endeavour to formulate and implement appropriate S&T Interventions for Sustainable Development through cluster approach in Uttarakhand.
This project
has been inspired by teachings and ideals of Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhayay whose
birth centenary is being celebrated this year.
DST has
conceived to adopt a few clusters of villages in Uttarakhand and transform them
to become self-sustainable in a time bound manner through the tools of
Science and Technology (S&T). The key
deliverable in this approach is to utilise local resources and locally
available skill sets and convert them in a manner using science and technology,
that substantial value addition takes place in their local produce and services
which can sustain the rural population locally. Further, the local
communities are not compelled to migrate from their native places in search of
jobs and livelihoods. Once this concept is validated in the few selected
clusters, it can be replicated across large number of village clusters in the
country.
Four clusters at Gaindikhata, Bazeera, Bhigun (in Garhwal) and Kausani (in
Kumaon) have been selected for the intervention through a
series of dialogues held among officials of DST and Uttarakhand State Council
of Science and Technology (UCOST); Gramodaya Network, Surabhi Foundation and
Uttarakhand Utthan Parishad; and other experts. Intensive interaction with
local population and field visits were carried out to identify the challenges
and opportunities that exist in the clusters.
Areas of
interventions in these selected clusters would be processing and value addition
of milk, honey, mushroom, herbal tea, forest produce, horticulture and local
crops, medicinal & aromatic plants and traditional craft and handloom of
Uttarakhand. Post-harvest processing of Kiwi,
Strawberry, Cherry, Tulsi, Adrak, Badi Elaichi through solar
drying technology, extraction of apricot oil using cold press technology.
Stringent product and process control interventions for energy and water
conservation would also be ensured through this project.
