Centre includes Mandi, Kangra in NREG scheme

Shimla, June 22 (UNI) The Centre has included Mandi and Kangra districts of Himachal Pradesh under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) from this financial year and efforts will be made to include Shimla in the near future, Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad said today.

Talking to the media after chairing the consultative committee review meeting of the Rural Development ministry, he said the Centre has released a sum of Rs 327 crore to the state against an allocation of Rs 213.50 crore for the implementation of various developmental projects in rural Himachal last year.

Mr Prasad said since March an amount of Rs 101 crore had been released for the current year.

Besides, Chamba and Sirmaur, where the scheme had been launched last year, and Kangra and Mandi, the NREGS would be extended to Shimla soon.

He said the under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the state was entitled for Rs 551 crore funds against which the centre had released Rs 582.5 crore form 2001 to 2007.

Proposals worth Rs 1,573 crore for developing 8,719 km of roads had been cleared by the ministry, he said.

Himachal was in the forefront of implementing various programmes like Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), Accelerated Water Supply Programme, (ARWSP), Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) and others, Mr Prasad added.

UNI