Tripura spends Rs 11.99 crore under PMGSY

Agartala, Jan 17 (UNI) Tripura has spent Rs 11.99 crore til November 2006 under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), Union Rural Development Ministry sources said here today.

The annual target for PMGSY under Bharat Nirman during 2006 was Rs 40 crore but as per review about the performance of all the states, Tripura had spend only Rs 11.99 crore, which is about 29.97 per cent of the total amount.

Union Rural Development Minister Dr Raghuvansh Prasad in separate letters to the Chief Ministers of all the States recently had urged to take appropriate disciplinary action against field engineers and exemplary penal action against contractors associated with works found to be of unsatisfactory quality.

As per the inspections carried out by Independent National Quality Monitors (NQMs) from July 2004 to September 2006, found that the percentage of works completed unsatisfactory quality in the state was 32 per cent and in case of ongoing works quality unsatisfactory was 56 per cent respectively.

The union minister also informed that five states of the North Eastern region --Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland government's had not come forward with any proposal during the current fiscal or earlier and did not draw any amount so far.

In his letter to respective state Chief Ministers, Mr Singh mentioned ''special efforts are required to be made by the state governments to increase their absorption capacity particularly in the context of additional funds which is expected to be available through the special window of NABARD.

He said the Centre have decided to set up a special window in NABARD for fully meeting the requirement for financial rural roads under Bharat Nirman, sources added.

UNI