Hailakandi, July 9: The Cachar district administration has decided submit a proposal to Dispur make Khelma Part II of Cachar district under Katigorah circle a "model village".

Khelma is about 40km from Silchar town.

According to the 2011 Census, the total geographical area of village is 259.87 hectares and has a population of 1,607. There are about 365 houses in the village. Katigora is the nearest town to the village.

According to the instructions of the Centre, a team of Cachar district headed by deputy commissioner S. Viswanathan has already inspected the village.

The village was selected under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. It is a rural development programme focusing on development of villages. The programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 11, 2014.

The team of the deputy commissioner, heads of various departments and Katigorah MLA Amar Chand Jain visited the village last week and held discussions with the local people regarding the proposal.

Zilla parishad member, Troyabashi Das said the village is lagging behind in education, communication, health, drinking water, sanitation and other aspects.

She said there are 14 lower primary schools but there are no middle English or vernacular, high and higher secondary schools in the village. About 95 per cent of population are farmers. Jain said Khelma village is culturally rich and if it selected as a model village, the face of village will change forever..

Panchayat chief Milan Roy hoped that the government would pay attention to it if it was selected as a model village.

Viswananthan said they have reviewed the progress of the schemes in the village.

He said they have sent the proposal and the final selection would be made by a committee in Dispur headed by the chief secretary.