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Rural Ministry directive to States

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 9. The Rural Development Ministry has directed the State Governments not to undertake any machinery-intensive work under the Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY). Instead, the work should be labour-oriented that leads to the creation of additional wage employment, durable assets and infrastructure, and an increase in the number of man days generated with the available resources.

Addressing the Consultative Committee meeting here today, the Rural Development Minister, Kashiram Rana, said wage employment for a large number of rural poor was the only source of income. Last year, Rs. 3,684.64 crores and 45.26 lakh tonnes of foodgrains as Central allocation were released to the States under the SGRY. Against the total availability of funds and foodgrains during the year, utilisation was of the order of Rs. 4,707.63 crores and 38.96 lakh tonnes of foodgrains resulting in 71.76 man days.

In the current year, the allocation under the scheme is Rs. 4,125 crores and 50 lakh tonnes of foodgrains. Of this, Rs 1,893.11 crores and 21.39 lakh tonnes of foodgrains have already been released as first instalment to the eligible districts.

On the housing sector, Mr. Rana said that according to the 1991 census, housing requirement in the rural areas was 138.5 lakh.

So far, 100 lakh houses had been constructed under the Indira Awaas Yojana with an expenditure of more than 17,000 crores.

Last year, against the allocation of Rs. 1,656.40 crores, the release was Rs. 1,628.53 crores and the number of houses built were 15,24,380.

In the current year, Rs. 29.36 crores had been released to the eligible districts against the current allocation of Rs. 1,870.50 crores.

However, the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, Laloo Prasad Yadav, said these numbers were not adequate since it meant just a couple of houses to each panchayat.

Members of the Consultative Committee expressed unhappiness over the failure of the Vigilance and Monitoring Committees to meet regularly.

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