Punjab: NABARD to finance Rs 1000cr devpt schemes

Chandigarh, June 14: The Punjab government has finally prevailed upon NABARD to secure financial backing for development schemes involving an estimated expenditure of Rs 1000 crores.

A decision to this effect was taken by a NABARD team led by its chairman S P Thorat after a meeting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here today.

Taking part in the deliberations, Mr Thorat said that NABARD would provide Rs 533 crore during the current financial year besides clearing the backlog of Rs 420 crore for the previous fiscal year.

Out of the Rs 533 crore, a sum of Rs 123 crore would be for the upgradation of science courses infrastructure in 246 schools. Another sum of Rs 90 crore would be for the construction of rural roads not covered under PMGSY scheme, Rs 80 crore for the cleaning of water channels for irrigation, Rs 20 crore for drip irrigation and water storage on farm lands and Rs 80 crore for the cleaning of ponds.

Beside Rs 40 crore would be spent on upgradation of veterinary hospitals/polyclinics and the remaing amount would be for skill development scheme.

Mr Thorat assured the Chief Minister that apart from these sanctioned funds, NABARD would keep a cushion of about Rs 70-80 crore to make available need based funds to finance other projects within the ambit of its schemes under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) XIII.

He urged the Chief Minister to direct the administrative departments to send the complete project reports to NABARD headquarters at Mumbai within a month to ensure timely release of the funds. He also agreed to the proposal of Mr Badal for giving special funds for the sports complexes attached to the schools to encourage sports activities amongst the youth.

The Chief Minister emphasised that Punjab 's rural infrastructure particularly in education, health, rural housing and technical education had deteriorated over a period of time and required much needed focused attention. He urged the chairman to include these critical areas under its schemes to the advantage of Punjab.

Mr Badal directed Chief Secretary R I Singh to ensure that all the project reports reach the NABARD headquarters within a month.

The Chief Minister assured the NABARD chief that all the projects and schemes duly sanctioned by the bank would be implemented within a definite time frame besides timely completion of of ongoing projects would be ensure.

Mr Badal sought additional funds for enhancing the carrying capacity of major canal networks under Assured Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) and Command Area Development (CAD) schemes. He also asked the NABARD chairman to sanction special funds for the bridges having a span of more than 25 kms on rural roads which were not covered under PMGSY.

The NABARD chief also directed his regional officers to coordinate with the state government and prepare information plans for one district each in the three climatic zones of the state. The entire study would be funded by NABARD and funds made available for the implementation of recommendations for the appropriate schemes of NABARD.

He also assured the Chief Minister that NABARD would be willing to join the National Housing Bank of India in drawing up and finalising appropriate schemes for rural housing in the state.

Prominent amongst other who were present in the meeting included the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minster D S Guru, Principal Secretary Finance D S Kalha, Principal Secretary Technical Education P Ram, Principal Secretary Water Supply and Sanitation J R Kundal, Financial Commissioner Development G S Sandhu, Financial Commissioner Animal Husbandry S C Aggarwal, Financial Commissioner Cooperation Kusumjit Sidhu, Secretary PWD (B&R) Karan Avtar Singh, Secretary Irrigation and Power Suresh Kumar, Secretary School Education Karanbir Singh Sidhu and Secretary Expenditure A S Chattwal, besides the banks Executive Director Amaresh Kumar and regional officers of NABARD.

UNI