One crore rural Indians to get employment by next year

Kolkata, Sept 13 (UNI) Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today said more than one crore people would find employment under different rural development programmes of the Centre by next year.

Speaking to newspersons after chairing the two-day review meeting of five Eastern states about their performance, Dr Singh said about nine million rural Indians had been provided with jobs under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana(SGRY), Swarnajyanti Gram Swarojgar Yojona(SGSY) and several other schemes so far.

He underscored the need for total transparency besides strict vigilance and monitoring of all rural development schemes at the village level in every state.

The Minister felt that without increased public participation, sucess cannot be achieved.

Claiming that satisfactory progress had been made in construction of rural housing, concrete road connetivity, supply of potable water, rural eletrification and sanitation programmes, he said this year a total amount of Rs 1,74,000 crore had been sanctioned by the Centre for these purposes.

Barring one or two states, progress of work in almost all states, including West Bengal, Bihar, Asom, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat, was satisfactory, Dr Singh added.

He said under the rural electrification programme, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were surging ahead of others, while in ensuring supply of pure drinking water and sanitation programme West Bengal and Orissa were doing very well.

In terms of proper implementation of the Indira Aawas Yojana to provide housing to people Below Poverty Line (BPL), more than 1.5 million houses were being constructed every year acorss the country at a cost of Rs 3000 crore, Dr Singh informed.

Asked about his plan to bring a permanent solution to the menace of arsenic-contaminated water in more than 100 blocks in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar, the Minister said he was determined to provide arsenic-free water to all these affected blocks by 2009 and Rs 800 crore had so far been sanctioned for the state governments concerned.

''There would be no dearth of funds at any point of time to end the menace within a timeframe,'' he added.

Regarding construction of 26-lakh-km of metal roads in rural India at a cost of Rs 48,000 crore within four years, Dr Singh said more than 60 per cent work had already been completed.

Similarly, under the rural electrification programme work had been taken up in 200 of the country's 600 districts in the first phase with substantial budget, he added.

The next regional review meeting of the performance of eight North Eastern states, would take place in October in Guwahati, the Minister said.

Rural Development Secretaries and senior officials from all the five Eastern states comprising West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh attended the two-day review meeting, which began here yesterday.

UNI ABA SJC AK VC/HS2009