As India accelerates investments in rural infrastructure, a key policy challenge is ensuring that development today does not create vulnerabilities tomorrow. Uttar Pradesh has sought to address this by integrating climate resilience directly into the design of roads, water conservation projects, plantations and livelihood programmes.
The state has spent ₹16,103 crore on water-related works under MGNREGA over the past five years, created more than 19,900 Amrit Sarovars, planted over 62.53 crore saplings and expanded the use of resource-efficient technologies such as plastic roads and Full Depth Reclamation (FDR).
In an interview with ETGovernment’s Arpit Gupta, G S Priyadarshi, Commissioner & Secretary, Rural Development Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh, discusses why sustainability must be embedded at the planning stage and how community institutions are critical to ensuring long-term impact.
Edited excerpts:
Rural infrastructure is expanding rapidly through roads, water conservation and livelihood programmes. How can sustainability and climate resilience be embedded into development planning from the outset?
Sustainability becomes effective only when it is treated as a core development objective rather than a separate environmental agenda. When we build a road, we are making decisions about resource use, emissions and long-term resilience. Similarly, when we generate employment, we must ensure that the labour invested today creates assets that continue to benefit communities for decades.
One of the biggest strengths of MGNREGA is that development work itself can become climate action. In Uttar Pradesh, nearly 32% of total MGNREGA expenditure over the last five years, ₹16,103 crore has been spent on water-related activities and asset creation. This was a deliberate planning decision.
Works such as ponds, Amrit Sarovars, check dams and water conservation structures generate employment while strengthening climate resilience. By integrating livelihood creation with natural resource management from the beginning, every rupee spent delivers both economic and environmental returns.
How are technology and innovation helping Uttar Pradesh make rural infrastructure more sustainable?
Climate resilience is often determined by decisions taken before construction begins. For instance, Uttar Pradesh has built over 605 kilometres of roads using waste plastic, incorporating around 1,400 metric tonnes of plastic that would otherwise have been discarded or burned. This not only addresses a waste-management challenge but also improves road durability.
We have also adopted Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) technology on a large scale. FDR allows distressed roads to be recycled in place instead of relying on fresh aggregates from quarries. The existing road material is reused to create a new road base, reducing both resource extraction and environmental impact.
We have already completed 651 kilometres of roads using FDR, with another 5,814 kilometres under implementation. Every FDR road represents natural resources conserved and emissions avoided. These sustainability gains become possible when technology choices are integrated into project planning from the start.
The Amrit Sarovar initiative has emerged as a flagship programme. What lessons does it offer for climate-resilient rural development?
Amrit Sarovar is perhaps our clearest example of climate resilience being embedded into mainstream development planning. Against an initial target of about 5,625 Amrit Sarovars, Uttar Pradesh has created more than 19,900, over three times the target, making it the leading state in the country under the programme. These water bodies have added nearly 199.8 billion litres of water-holding capacity across rural Uttar Pradesh.
In addition, we have created or rejuvenated approximately 1.75 lakh ponds over the past five years. The key lesson is that these initiatives were never treated as standalone environmental projects. Water conservation targets were integrated into district development plans and performance indicators. Every district understood that water security and climate resilience were part of its core development responsibilities.
When climate outcomes become part of mainstream governance and performance measurement, sustainability naturally ceases to be an afterthought. Sustainability stops being an afterthought the moment you stop measuring it separately. When your road target and your plastic recycling target become the same target, you have solved the problem.
What role do local communities and Panchayati Raj Institutions play in ensuring that green infrastructure delivers lasting benefits?
Without community ownership, green infrastructure does not remain green for long. Governments can build assets, but the real challenge is determining who will care for them ten or twenty years later. A pond that nobody feels responsible for can be encroached upon. A plantation that nobody monitors may not survive. A road that the community never demanded often receives little attention when it deteriorates.
This is why Panchayati Raj Institutions are central to our approach. Under MGNREGA, the Gram Sabha’s labour budget and village development plan serve as the starting point for identifying works. Communities themselves determine local priorities. When villagers identify the need for pond rejuvenation and local workers participate in creating that asset, a sense of ownership develops naturally. Maintenance is no longer an external responsibility, it becomes a community commitment.
PRIs are therefore not supplementary institutions; they are the maintenance architecture for rural assets.
Uttar Pradesh has undertaken large-scale plantation drives. How are you ensuring that these efforts translate into long-term ecological gains?
The real measure of success in afforestation is not how many saplings are planted, but how many survive. Over the last five years, Uttar Pradesh has planted approximately 62.53 crore saplings. However, our focus is increasingly shifting from plantation numbers to survival rates.
To strengthen community participation, we have introduced Green Chaupals at the Gram Panchayat level. These forums bring together elected representatives, officials and local stakeholders to prepare village-level greening plans. Decisions are taken on species selection, plantation locations and maintenance responsibilities based on local conditions. Gram Sabhas, Gram Pradhans and women’s Self-Help Groups under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) play a critical role in monitoring and protecting these plantations. Saplings planted on private land are cared for by individual beneficiaries, while those planted on community land are overseen by local institutions.
Infrastructure has a lifespan. Community ownership has a generational span. The only way green infrastructure remains green twenty years from now is if the people living next to it consider it their own. Gram Sabhas, Gram Pradhans and women’s Self-Help Groups are not peripheral additions to our programmes, they are the implementation architecture. Without them, we are merely building assets, not creating lasting change.
