MP revives Central scheme, seeks ideas from public for ‘a prize’

The "One MP - One Idea" scheme rolled out by the Union government five years ago seems to have got a fresh lease of life in Trichy with DMK's Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva asking for suggestions from the public to resolve various issues.
The Centre had introduced the idea of roping in the general public to give suggestions on various issues like those related to agriculture and education in 2012. However, there was no announcement from the district administration about the scheme. Tiruchi Siva has now taken the initiative and asked the people to come out with innovative ideas to resolve a variety of issues like ground water depletion, global warming, threats posed by population explosion, hazards of plastic, dwindling agriculture and shrinking water bodies. The list of issues also included traffic irregularities, environmental pollution, dyeing factory effluence, substitute for sand, educational reformation, unemployment and student unrest.
"All that is required are solutions to social issues and an opportunity to showcase far and wide the talents of the youngsters of Tamil Nadu," said Siva in his statement while admitting that it was not his brainchild. It was a perusal of the handbook issued by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, government of India that introduced the scheme to the MP. It permitted any MP to allot Rs 5 lakh towards implementing the scheme. Any social issue which needed redressal could be addressed and a blueprint of how it could be executed had to be drawn up. Any resident of Tamil Nadu could address any social problem.
Participants are expected to highlight any one problem and draw up a detailed plan for solving the issue. An expert committee would scrutinise it and also decide the prize winning entry and certify the same. The best proposal would bag a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh, the second best Rs 1.5 lakh and third best a prize money of Rs 1 lakh. The project proposal has to be forwarded to the Director, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Collector Office, Trichy or to drdatry@nic.in on or before December 31. While Trichy Siva asked the people to suggest ideas, AIADMK MPs P Kumar (Lok Sabha) and T Rathinavelu (Rajya Sabha) have so far remained silent on the scheme.

source:https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/trichy/mp-revives-central-scheme-seeks-ideas-from-public-for-a-prize/articleshow/61856190.cms