HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has said that the Centre would shortly launch the National Mission on bio-diesel.

Mr. Singh made the announcement at a memorial lecture organised by the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) to commemorate the centenary celebrations of S. K. Dey, the first Union Minister for Community Development, Cooperation and Panchayat Raj here on Friday.

He said constant fluctuation in the international oil market had forced the Government to explore ways and means to introduce alternative fuel.

Over 5.50 crore hectares of wasteland was available in the country of which 4.50 crore hectares could be taken up for Jatropha cultivation. The Centre was keen on launching the mission at the earliest.

The Government was keen to make it mandatory that all the Centrally-sponsored schemes were finalised in gram sabhas. The selection of beneficiaries, monitoring of development schemes and social audit would be done at these sabhas.

He said fighting poverty and unemployment were the foremost task of the Government. Without the development of rural areas, all-round growth of the country was not possible, he said, and hoped that concerted efforts would be made in this direction.

Delivering the memorial lecture on `Community organisation and rural development in Eleventh Plan', former Union Minister Y. K. Alagh referred to the agrarian crisis and the need for a revitalised stakeholder.

Agricultural growth drops

He said the farm growth in India had declined and so were the investment and profitability. He noted that the net sown area under crops fell drastically for the first time along with area under irrigation.

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