Indian Institute of Technology-Patna will on Sunday adopt Amhara and Dilawarpur villages in the presence of Union human resource development minister Smriti Irani to develop them as model villages.
Located in the vicinity of the new IIT campus in Bihta, the two villages will be adopted under the Union government's Unnat Bharat Abhiyan scheme.
The IIT-Patna faculty and students will be directly associated with the project for infrastructure development of the villages.
Students, either individually or in groups, would have to prepare projects to be pursued during their association with the institution for infrastructure development of the villages with the use of technology and medical infrastructure.
Facilities such as making the village self-reliant in power through solar energy, increasing irrigation facilities in the village and supply of safe drinking water to people, community participation are some of the programmes to be taken up under the Abhiyan.
The premier institution will also help in developing agriculture machinery, medical instruments, small-scale industries, public health and educational outreach in the villages.
A fourth year student said: "Starting with Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, the institution will organise a tuberculosis camp at Dilawarpur village next week. Similarly, health camps to deal with other diseases will be organised at the two villages."?
Students would also develop automatic as well as manual agro-based machines.
"We will develop agro-based machines, which would not only be cost-effective but also eco-friendly for farmers. The students would also guide the villagers in developing solar-powered machines and improving irrigation facilities in the village," a student said.
IIT-Patna director Pushpak Bhattacharyya on Thursday announced the institute's plan to adopt two villages under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan. He said infrastructure facilities in the two villages would be strengthened.
"The institution will adopt the villages on Sunday in the presence of minister Smriti Irani," said Bhattacharyya.
Under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, 132 villages have been identified for intervention by institutes of higher education.
Under the project, 16 institutes, including the old IITs - Bombay, Delhi, Madras - to newer ones such as IIT-Bhubaneswar, Indore, Patna among others would take part.
With an idea to include educational institutions in developing rural India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 22 last year addressed a conference with directors and chairpersons of the IITs, exhorting them to adopt a village and develop appropriate technologies.
Though the programme is an initiative of the ministry of human resource development, it would be coordinated and steered by IIT-Delhi. The idea for launching the programme is to provide definitive research that can be aligned with national development.
