Funds for Gram Panchayats for Border Districts of Punjab

Funds for Gram Panchayats for Border Districts of Punjab

Sh Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development, Drinking Water & Sanitation today announced that the Rural Development Ministry would be providing separate funds under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) for enhancing road connectivity in the six border districts of Punjab i.e Amristsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Taran Taran and Pathankot. The Minister said this while addressing a gathering of Ministers, MLAs, Deputy Commissioners and other senior functionaries of the Government of Punjab at the Seminar on Rural Development Policies & Programmes here today. The Chief Minister of Punjab, Shri Prakash Singh Badal and Sh Sunil Sunil Jakhar, Leader of the Opposition in Punjab were also present on the occasion. The Minister said that the condition of minimum inhabitation of 500 persons for providing road connectivity under PMGSY would also be relaxed to 250 persons in the case of border districts on the lines of tribal and naxal areas. As regards the Right of Way condition of 10 metres of road, the Minister said that the rural development ministry was in favour of reducing it to 8.33 metres and already his Ministry has approached the Indian Roads Congress for giving its formal approval to the same. The Minister further announced that the Government has decided to remove the BPL condition for providing funds under the rural sanitation programmes of the Ministry. Referring to the inadequate amount of funds available for construction of a toilet under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), Sh Jairam Ramesh informed that the Government has decided to increase this limit to Rs 9500 from the next month. Of this, Rs 5000 would be available as direct subsidy and Rs 4500 would be available under MNREGA. He also asked the state government to look into the aspect of liquid and solid waste management as well. At the same time, Sh Ramesh called upon the Punjab government to improve its record as far as Nirmal Gram Panchayats were concerned. He said that while in Punjab only 170 villages out a total of 12500 have been declared as Nirmal Gram Panchayats, in case of Haryana the figure was 1500 villages out 6500, which is nearly a fourth of the state’s total villages. He also informed that the work on the new BPL list for Punjab was already underway and the final list was likely to be out by September end. The Minister further added that he was of the opinion that for many rural development schemes such as the Indira Awas Yojna, the condition of BPL should not be there. Referring to the problem of water logging in the state, the Rural Development Minister said that this was a problem which had to solved jointly by the state and the Central government. While asking the Chief Minister to propose a short term and a long term plan for the problem, he suggested that the Centre would be happy to constitute a technical expert committee for looking into the issue. About the problem of drinking water in the state, the Minister said that it was not just good enough to provide drinking water, but the state should also look into the aspect of the quality of the water being provided. He observed that water in Punjab had Uranium and Arsenic contents and even fluoride in some places. He informed that the Ministry has already provided Rs 90 crore for this purpose for the current year and was prepared to give even more money, if required. Talking about his plan for strengthening the panchayats and also making them more accountable, Shri Jairam Ramesh said that the Government has decided that out of the total budgetary allocation of Rs 99,000 crore for the Rural Development Ministry, one per cent, which was nearly Rs 1000 crore would be given to the Gram Panchayats to carry out programmes as per their own priorities. This would mean that each panchayat in the country gets around Rs 5-6 lakhs annually as untied fund, he added. However to ensure greater transparency and accountability, the Minister said, every rural development programme would henceforth come under the financial and performance audit of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG). CAG, he informed, was already carrying out an audit of the performance of rural development programmes during the last six years, the report of which is expected by October or November this year. Additionally, each Gram Panchayat would have to have a compulsory certification of its accounts every year. Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Shri Prakash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab sought the help of Shri Jairam Ramesh for the project for cleaning of rivers and village ponds in the state. Shri Badal also highlighted the problem of water logging in the state and sought the help of the Union Minister in this regard. The Chief Minister also mentioned that there was an urgent need for a low cost sewerage system in the state for which the state required nearly Rs 150 crore per year out a total requirement of Rs 700 crore. He also requested Shri Ramesh to enhance the limit of funds for construction of toilets and for housing under IAY, since the present limits were too low and unviable. In his remarks, Shri Sunil Jakhar raised the issue of pollution in the rivers of Punjab, the cancer problem in the Malwa region and water logging in the Fazilka area. He called for a hike in the MNREGA wages being given in Punjab, which were quite low as compared to Haryana. While asking for a probe into the mismanagement of rural development funds in Punjab, Shri Jakhar also called upon the state government for more judicious use of Central funds and for strengthening the Panchayati Raj System in the state.