MUMBAI: India has about 7 lakh villages, of which thousands are bereft of electricity, infrastructure and sound education facilities. Understanding the importance of developing villages to fast-track India’s growth story, Tata Power today announced that the company aims to transform Kadachimeth, a tribal village in the Thane District of Maharashtra, into a model village by 2017.
In line with the Independence Day speech of Hon’ Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on the need for developing model villages to build a stronger India, the Company has pledged to partner with the community of Kadachimeth, and work towards improving their quality of life.
With more than 90 per cent of adivasi (tribal) population, the village is deprived of basic amenities and the standard of living is poor. In the next 3 years, the Company plans to engage in developing it into a clean and green village with good roads, good education facilities, medical outreach, and solid infrastructure so that the village becomes a role-model for the neighboring villages to emulate.
Tata Power has assigned a team of employees to execute the development work, who will further be supported by the by the time and talent of other employee volunteers so as to harness the energy of the entire Tata Power family through a spirit of ‘Shramdaan’.
Commenting on this development, Mr. Anil Sardana, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Power stated, “Our Hon’ble Prime Minister gave a call to each MP to adopt a village. At Tata Power, we are pursuing the legacy of our founder, Mr. Jamshetji Tata, who had stated that in a free enterprise, community is not just a stakeholder but in fact the very purpose of its existence.
With this philosophy, we will work towards building and developing Kadachimeth as a model village to bring about social upliftment and inclusive development of the community. We will provide full support to our team, and will help them transform Kadachimeth as the most aspired village of the neighborhood from being the most deprived.”
Kadachimeth village is not a part of Tata Power’s area of operations, but has been selected by the Company in the true spirit of Corporate Social Responsibility to benefit the community at large. The Company has communicated the details of the selected village to the Collector, Member of Legislative Assembly and Member of Parliament of the area, so that it’s not duplicated under the announced scheme. Similarly, Tata Power aspires to adopt one village in each area of operation and develop it into a model village in next 3 years. These role-model villages would become the proof-of-concept for the other villages to emulate.