13 August: Union Rural Development Minister Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has asked all the States/UT to ensure that Bharat Nirman targets affixed for them are achieved BY 2009.
Presiding over a meeting of the Secretaries of Rural Development Departments for review of the rural roads, component of Bharat Nirman convened recently Dr. Singh also asked them to accelerate the pace of implementation for ensuring maximum achievement of targets of PMGSY component of Bharat Nirman
On quality front, all States have been directed to ensure that for every work site, laboratory must be established by the contractors to ensure first tier check. States have been asked to employ retired, reputed engineers as State Quality Monitors for second quality monitoring. About 150 National Quality Monitors have also been inducted for random check of quality of roads. Minister has asked all the States to see that quality must be maintained, wrong doers must be acted upon. Emphasis has also been laid on the maintenance of roads. He also instructed the the Secretaries of States/UTs Rural Development Departments to submit DPRs of all these habitations by December 2008 positively. State-wise target dates have also been fixed.
Ministry has so far sanctioned 3.25 lakh km. roads out of which 1.75 lakh km roads have been constructed, about 1.5 lakh km. road works are in progress. These 13 States, the pace of implementation is slow.
Ministry has identified 13 States which are lagging behind the schedule under the Pradhan Mantri Gram sadak Yojana (PMGSY). They are Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Assam, Orissa, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. In all these States, Ministry feels that the performance so far is a cause of concern. The States are lagging behind in submission of the Detailed Project Reports of the roads required to be built for ensuring achievement of Bharat Nirman targets. All the villages of 1000+ population (500+ population in case of hilly & tribal areas) are required to be provided all whether connectivity by the year 2009. J&K is still required to submit proposals for about 600 habitations , Jharkhand about 1000 habitations, Manipur – 55 habitations, Meghalaya – 39 habitations, Mizoram – 45 habitations, Tamil Nadu – 15 habitations, Uttarakhand – 376 habitations, Assam – 1100 habitations, Orissa – 1400 habitations, Bihar over 3000 habitations, West Bengal over 3000 habitations.