NABARD to finance Rs 1,000 crore development schemes in Punjab

Chandigarh, Jun 14 (UNI) The Punjab government has finally prevailed upon NABARD to secure financial backing for development schemes involving an estimated expenditure of Rs 1,000 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 remaining 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 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.

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