Soon all villages in Telangana State will have cemented roads

Hyderabad: Good news for the people living in rural areas of the State as they will soon have CC roads in their villages and get rid of the troublesome dirt roads.

The Centre sanctioned has Rs 500 crore to the State for construction of CC roads in villages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. Each of the 32 districts would get about Rs 20 crore under the scheme. The State government apportioned the funds mandal wise and issued orders to take up the works.

It has been instructed by the Centre that the funds should be used by end of March. If the funds are not utilized by March 31, they would go back.

The funds have been granted on the basis of population to each Gram Panchayat by the State government. The officials of the Rural Development department have been told to prepare the estimates for the works and get sanction.

According to RD department officials, about 6,000 dirt roads in the villages would be converted into CC roads. This would give relief to the residents of the villages who have been suffering in the monsoon season with the dirt roads. Most of the internal lanes of the villages do not have metal, CC or Tar roads.

They become muddy whenever it rains. People find it difficult to walk or travel on them till the road dries up.

In some of the villages the by lanes in the low-lying areas would be waterlogged for days together and dirt roads would be damaged beyond repair. The residents have to make their own arrangements to travel on them or avoid using them.

The villages have been facing the problems for the past decades. The Gram Panchayats are unable to construct CC roads due to lack of funds. Even the State government did not put focus. Only the villages which have some revenue from their own sources have constructed CC roads.

The Centre has granted the funds through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Under the programme works could be taken with 40 per cent material component.

The labour budget of the NREGS could be used to construct the roads. The funds for purchase of material would be provided through the component funds of the NREG scheme.