1700-cr Central funds dodge Telangana

Hyderabad: The State government seems to have failed to tap the funds from the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) as it did not provide the matching grants in time.

While it was supposed to get Rs 1,800 crore till December, it received just Rs 100 crore according to the report of the Rural Development Department of the Union government.

The State has been allocated Rs 203 crore per month under the scheme and was supposed to provide a matching grant of Rs 135 crore. However, the Centre’s report says that it got Rs 100 crore and provided a matching grant of Rs 48 crores. The allocation made by the Centre is just five per cent of the total grant.

The PMGSY has been launched to connect the villages with roads. Under the scheme, it has been proposed to connect 7,000 habitations. They include 1,200 habitations with more than 1,000 population, 2,300 habitations with more than 500 population and 3,500 habitations with more than 250 population.

Under the scheme, so far about 5,000 habitations have been connected. Works have been proposed to take up laying up of roads up to 4,600 km. However, so far, 1,100 km long roads have been constructed.

According to sources, officials of the Rural Development have failed to bring pressure on the Centre to sanction the funds and to ensure provision of matching grants. The financial year would end in another 40 days and it would not be possible to get funds in the short period.

The State government is supposed to provide Rs 1,620 crores to the scheme and it may find it difficult to give funds to one department at one go in the fag-end of the financial year. This means that the State would lose as much as Rs 1,700 crore.

Most of the villages, particularly those in the remote areas in the State have been suffering due to road connectivity problem and people are unable to reach the other areas.  The officials of the Panchayat Raj, Rural Development and Revenue departments have to work in coordination to provide tar or metal roads.  As the RD department was unable to coordinate with others, most of the villages are deprived of roads.

Many remote areas like Lambada Tandas, Adivasi Gudems and hamlets do not have road connectivity with neighboring areas. People of these habitations have to walk for kilometers together to reach their homes.