BANGALORE: Six backward districts have been identified for the Backward Regions' Grant Fund announced by the Centre along the lines of Rashtriya Saman Vikas Yojana, and each district may get up to Rs. 15 crore. The State Government will have to submit a detailed plan and implementation proposal for each district.

Union Minister for Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar told presspersons here on Monday that he expected the scheme to be launched nationwide on October 2 on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.

The six districts are Davanagere, Bidar, Chitradurga, Raichur, Gulbarga and Chamarajnagar.

Mr. Aiyar was interacting with elected women representatives from panchayats at a programme organised by the Singamma Sreenivasan Foundation.

He was all praise for the activity mapping system that panchayati raj institutions in the State had been following for the past few years. Mr. Aiyar allayed fears that the decentralisation process will be derailed by the new dispensation in the State.

"I've had detailed interaction with Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and came away with the impression that he is keen on keeping it on track, and Karnataka will go from the second to the first position in the implementation of panchayati raj decentralisation process,," he said. The State Government has plans to IT-enable all the 5,600-gram panchayats. Mr. Aiyar said that his Ministry would provide funds to take it further and link all taluk headquarters.

Business hubs

The 1,000-village— Rs. 1,000-crore scheme announced by the State Government as part of Suvarna Karnataka celebrations would be used by the Centre to promote 1,000 business hubs in the villages, Mr. Aiyar said.

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