(a) whether despite a number of rural development programmes the performance in rural
infrastructure is not proportional to the fund being provided by the Government;
(b) if so, the grey areas identified by the Government; and
(c) the steps taken/being taken by the Government for proper realization of single
paisa spent by the Centre?
MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (Dr. RAGHUVANSH PRASAD SINGH)
(a) to (c) With a view to give a focused attention to development of rural infrastructure,
a time bound business plan under the name `Bharat Nirman` has been put in place by the
Government. The critical areas of rural infrastructure identified for special focus are
as follows:-
Irrigation To create 1 crore ha. additional irrigation.
Rural Drinking Water To provide potable drinking water to 55,067 Uncovered Habitations (as per revised assessment), Slipped Back Habitations, Quality Affected Habitations and Rural Schools.
Rural Roads To connect all villages having a population of 1000 (500 in hilly/ tribal areas) with road.
Rural Housing To construct 60 lakh additional houses for the poor.
Rural Electrification To electrify remaining 1.25 lakh villages and offer electricity connection to 2.3 crore households.
Rural Telephone To give telephone connectivity to remaining 66822 villages. Connectivity
The Ministry of Rural Development is implementing three of the six components of Bharat Nirman i.e. Rural Roads, Rural Housing and Rural Drinking Water Supply. Since Bharat Nirman is a time bound action plan, the Government has already taken steps to address the issues of capacity of the State Level Agencies for implementing the various components and mobilization of resources. Further, in order to ensure that outlays result into outcomes a strict monitoring and vigilance mechanism has been put in place. The progress on the implementation of the various components of Bharat Nirman is being strictly monitored regularly at different levels with reference to well defined targets.