The Center said that it will not discriminate against any state in allocation of funds for construction of rural roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, PMGSY. Replying to the half an hour debate on PMGSY in the Lok Sabha, the Rural Development Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said that so far 65 percent of the rural habitations have been connected with all-weather roads and remaining 35 percent will be completed by March, 2019. He informed the members that out of 1, 83,599 habitations, 151,098 had already been sanctioned which 82 percent of the total for rural road connectivity.
The Minister allayed the apprehensions of the members regarding cut in central allocation and said that while the budgetary provision for the PMGSY was around Rs 9,000 crore in 2012-13, it had been enhanced to Rs 19,000 crore in 2015-16. Shri Tomar added that after the 14th Finance Commission, the States are now getting 42 percent funds, while earlier they used to get only 32 percent. So, there is no dearth of funds for this project. The Minister said that from 2011 to 2014, 73 kilometers road was built per day, while at present 100 kilometers of roads is being built each day and the target of the Ministry is to take it to 133 kilometers in near future.
Shri Tomar informed the members that in the 2nd Phase of PMGSY up gradation 50,000 kilometers road will be built at a cost of Rs 33,000 crore. He also informed the members that Gujrat, Punjab and Haryana will complete the 2nd phase by March next year. Referring to the use of “Green Technologies” and non-conventional materials for construction of PMGSY roads like waste plastic, cold mix, cell filled concrete, geo-textiles etc. more than 2500 kilometers of roads have been constructed.
On the question of monitoring of the PMGSY, the Minister said that the Government has recently announced the formation of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DDCMC) called “Disha” for effective development coordination and monitoring of 28 Central Schemes. He appealed to the MPs to actively take part in the first meeting of Disha to be held on 13th August, 2016 and provide positive feedback to the Government. He said, the meetings of the Disha committee would be held once in every Quarter mandatorily (Third Saturdays of April, July, October and February).
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