Question : FINANCIAL AID TO NORTH-EASTERN STATES

(a) whether the funds allocation under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak (PMGSY) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to the North Eastern States including Assam have been made in consonance with the prevailing norms/criteria for these States;

(b) if so, the details of funds allocated under these schemes during the last three years alongwith the progress made there-in, State-wise; and

(c) the steps taken by the Government to ensure road connectivity to all the villages and clusters in remote areas of these States?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT(SHRI PRADEEP JAIN `ADITYA`)

(a) For Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), 50% of cess on High Speed Diesel (HSD) received in the Central Road Fund (CRF) is earmarked. This is allocated among States as per the formula given by the Planning Commission for allocation of funds in 2000-01. Additional funds are made available to the states depending upon status of preparedness, the speed of execution of projects in hand and the absorption capacity of the executing agencies.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is demand driven and not an allocation base programme. Funds are released by the Ministry to the States for implementation of the Act in accordance with the labour demand at the field level.

(b) A statement indicating the allocation made out of share of cess, funds released and expenditure incurred vis-à-vis length of road works completed during last three years under PMGSY in North-Eastern States is given in Annexure-I. The details of funds released together with the performance in terms of expenditure, number of households provided employment and total persondays of employment generated in North -Eastern States under MGNREGS is given in Annexure-II.

(c) PMGSY envisages providing all weather road connectivity to all unconnected habitations in rural areas having population of 500 or more persons in plain areas and 250 or more persons in hill States, tribal and desert areas. Further, in order to ensure wider coverage of habitations in the blocks bordering international boundary in the hill States (as identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs), the programme guidelines have been amended to treat all the habitations within path distance of 10 km as cluster for determining the size of population.