Centre provides Rs. 25,000-mn for development of roads

Chikmagalur: A.S. Srikanth, Principal Secretary, Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, said that Rs. 2,500 crore would be spent for the development of roads in the State during the next three years.

Speaking to presspersons, Mr. Srikanth said the Union Government had sanctioned Rs. 1,251 crore under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana in the last 10 months. He expressed the confidence that another Rs. 100-crore proposal would be approved by the Union Government.

He said that of the Rs. 661 crore granted for rural roads, Rs. 350 crore had been distributed to the zilla panchayats and Rs. 187 crore had been spent so far. Expressing satisfaction that Karnataka had moved up from ninth place to occupy the top place in quality of work, he said the State came second in implementation of work and efforts will be made to retain these positions.

Regretting that the progress achieved under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was not satisfactory, he said Rs. 481 crore had been sanctioned as against the requirement of Rs. 1,100 crore.

Stating that Rs. 879 crore had been released for drinking water schemes under the State and Central sectors this year, he reiterated that there was no paucity of funds for drinking water schemes.

He said all government schools in rural areas had been provided with drinking water. All the 1,030 grameen vasathi areas in the State would get four borewells each, he added.

Commending the rainwater harvesting system installed in the zilla panchayat offices in Chikmagalur, he said he would make efforts to get similar systems installed in other districts too.

He said that under Jalamani, a Central scheme introduced on November 14, at least two schools in a district would be provided with a purifying unit to ensure that drinking water was free from salts, dissolved salts and iron.

He said that 98 groups had been formed in the district under the Swarna Jayanti Swaraj Yojana. This scheme had been introduced as recovery of loans given to beneficiaries under the IRDP scheme was poor, he added.

He said there was a proposal to entrust the implementation of the Abolition of Child Labour Act to gram panchayats and conduct grama sabhas for children aged between five and 14.

R. Narayanaswamy, Deputy Commissioner of Chikmagalur district and K. Sundar Naik, Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat, were present.