The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Rs.100 crore for road works

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Rs.100 crore for road works

Special Correspondent

Central assistance to be sought

Work on 322 roads completed
Local bodies have spent 89 per cent of allotted funds

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister for Local Self-Government Paloli Mohammed Kutty told the Assembly on Monday that work on 2,346 km of village roads would be taken up shortly with Central assistance.

Replying to the debate on the demands for grants for Panchayat, Community Development and Urban Development, the Minister said Rs.100 crore would be spent on road maintenance. The standing committees had approved the proposals.

The Minister said the proposal for maintenance work on 1,083 km more of rural roads would be submitted for Central assistance by the end of this month.

The State had already completed work on 322 roads (733 km) at a cost of Rs.294 crore under Central schemes, he said.

Mr. Mohammed Kutty said 17 lakh workers had registered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme which had been extended to all districts. A sum of Rs.96.15 crore had been paid as wages under the programme in the last two years.

The number of man days generated came to 81 lakh. While 1.82 lakh families benefited last year, the beneficiaries numbered 99,000 in the previous year.

He said the local self-governments had spent 89 per cent of the funds allocated to them in 2007-08 and 86.42 per cent of the funds allocated to them the previous year. The Plan implementation was being taken up from the beginning of this year itself so as to prevent crowding of expenditure towards the end of the financial year.

He said Janasevana Kendrams would be started in all panchayats.

A slum eradication programme was being taken up in 26 municipalities at a cost of Rs.111 crore. More than 8,000 houses were being constructed.

The Minister said complaints regarding transfer of officials in the Department had been eliminated by adopting common norms. Though a few employees had approached the courts, the courts had upheld the government’s stand in their cases.

After the Minister’s reply, the House passed the demands for grants totalling Rs.690.23 crore.

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