A week after PM Manmohan Singh’s announcement in Srinagar, the Union Cabinet gave its nod to a grant of Rs 710 crore for land acquisition for expansion and upgradation of rural roads network in Jammu and Kashmir.
The payment will be a special one-time dispensation for Jammu and Kashmir to meet the cost of land acquisition covering compensatory afforestation, forest land, trees, private land and structures for completion of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) programmes.
The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Singh on Wednesday, decided that Rs 710 crores — at 2013-14 prices — would be released in two tranches to the state government under the PMGSY.
The Cabinet also approved the change in the nomenclature ‘Hill States’ under the PMGSY to ‘Special Category states’.
This would include Assam on par with other north eastern states and would increase the central share from 75 percent to 90 percent for the state, an official release said on Wednesday.
The Cabinet also approved an expenditure of Rs. 2,866 crore for implementation of these proposals, it added.
Singh had announced Rs 710 crore grant to Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting with the Council of Ministers of the state during his visit to Srinagar last week.
Reports had it that J & K Governor N N Vohra had expressed concern over poor implementation of the rural roads scheme in the state.
A senior official from the Rural Development Ministry had reviewed the implementation of PMGSY earlier this month.
Launched in 2000, the PMGSY aims at providing all-weather connectivity to all unconnected habitations with a population of 500 persons and above; 250 persons and above in hill states, desert areas, tribal Schedule-V areas and 82 selected tribal and backward districts as identified under the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) in rural areas.
The net number of total eligible unconnected habitations are approximately 1.79 lakh.
Till 31st May, project proposals for providing connectivity to approximately 1.32 lakh eligible habitations have been sanctioned.
The total cost of sanctioned projects, including projects for upgradation of roads under the PMGSY is approximately Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
Against this, approximately Rs 1.04 lakh crore has been released to states/union territories including administrative costs.
States have reported that a total length of 3.8 lakh km roads, including upgradation, have been constructed till 31st May and about 93,000 habitations have been provided new connectivity, an official release said.