The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has disbursed ₹16,500 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) during the current financial year so far (up to January 31, 2021).

Cumulative disbursements under the fund, which was started in 1995 to create social assets in rural India, stood at ₹3,10,849 crore as on January 31, 2021, NABARD said in a statement.

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Disbursements in financial year ending 2020 under the ongoing tranches of RIDF aggregated ₹26,266 crore, according to NABARD’s annual report.

Under RIDF, low-cost funds are provided to States to facilitate completion of incomplete rural infrastructure projects.

The eligible activities under RIDF cover 37 activities of rural life, broadly categorised under Agriculture and Irrigation, Rural Connectivity and Social Sector, including drinking water, primary health and education.

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GR Chintala, Chairman, NABARD, said: “The increased allocations (in the Union Budget for 2021-22) to RIDF and Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) at ₹40,000 crore (from ₹30,000 crore) and ₹10,000 crore (from ₹5,000 crore) respectively, will help push rural infrastructure projects across States.”

As per the statement, doubling the MIF to ₹10,000 crore will promote water use efficiency in agriculture.

NABARD said, over the last two years, an amount of ₹3,970 crore has been sanctioned to seven States — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal, Punjab and Uttarakhand, which would help bring around 13 lakh hectares of land under micro irrigation.

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