The Hindu Business Line : Nabard sanctions Rs 492 cr to Maharashtra

The Figures
Total sanctions to the State Government during 2006-07 under RIDF-XII have reached Rs 609.48 crore.

While according sanctions to the State Government, highest priority has been given to six distressed districts of Vidarbha region as apart of relief package unveiled by the Prime Minister at Nagpur on July 1, 2006.

Pune March 21 Nabard has sanctioned Rs 491.89 crore to the Maharashtra Government under the second phase of RIDF-XII for development of minor irrigation, rural road and bridge projects in the State.

These sanctions accorded in the Project Sanctioning Committee meeting include 139 minor irrigation projects amounting to Rs 112.91 crore for creating an additional irrigation potential of 20,000 ha and Rs 378.98 crore for 866 rural roads and 197 rural bridge projects, facilitating strengthening and black topping of 2,642 km of rural roads and construction of 5,100 metres of bridges in the rural areas.

These projects are expected to be completed by March 2009.

According to an official communication, the total sanctions to the State Government during 2006-07 under RIDF-XII have reached Rs 609.48 crore including Rs 117.59 crore sanctioned earlier for 26 minor irrigation projects in six distressed districts of Vidarbha region under the package announced by the Prime Minister.

Relief package

While according sanctions to the State Government, highest priority has been given to six distressed districts of Vidarbha region as apart of relief package unveiled by the Prime Minister at Nagpur on July 1, 2006.

Out of a total of 139 minor irrigation projects, 31 projects have been sanctioned in Amravati, 20 (Akola), 25 (Yavatmal), 24 (Buldhana),17 (Washim) and 17 (Wardha districts).

Further, 140 rural road and bridge projects amounting to Rs 43.07 crore have also been sanctioned in these six distressed districts of Vidarbha region.

On completion, the irrigation projects would generate employment of 13.08 lakh mandays of recurring nature and 178.45 lakh mandays of non-recurring nature and the road and bridge projects would create an non-recurring employment to the extent of 165 lakh mandays.

Limited sanction

In the X tranche of RIDF (during 2004-05), a limited sanction for Rs 95.41 crore were accorded to the State Government and under XI tranche (during 2005-06), the sanctions were restricted to the tune of Rs 100.80 crore due to default to Nabard.

With the pro-active role played by State Government in clearing of SLDB default, the RIDF loan assistance by the end of the current tranche, i.e. RIDF XII has reached to the level of Rs 609.48 crore.

Further during 2006-07, Nabard has released Rs 132.09 crore to the State Government for the on-going tranches of RIDF which include Rs 57.59 crore for minor irrigation, Rs 71.09 crore for rural road and bridges and Rs 3.41 crore for rural water supply projects, it said.

In the recent budget speech, the Finance Minister has announced an enhanced corpus of Rs 12,000 crore for RIDF-XIII and it is expected that the share of Maharashtra may reach to a record level of around Rs 1,000 crore in the coming year with the inclusion of new sectors namely soil and water conservation, rural drinking water supply schemes, health and education besides irrigation and rural roads, it added.

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