 | « Back to article | Print this article |
The government said on Tuesday, that its flagship schemes for rural development were progressing well and making an impact on ground, assuring that innovative ways to enhance transparency and accountability in their implementation will be looked at.
"Our government made a commitment to the people to give a new deal to rural India. Our flagship schemes towards this end, such as Bharat Nirman, NREGA and the National Rural Health Mission, are progressing well and making an impact on the ground," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said while presenting the UPA-II report card. "We are monitoring the performance carefully and will look at innovative ways of enhancing transparency and accountability in the implementation of these programmes. I assure you that funds will not be a constraint when it comes to the core concerns of the aam aadmi, (common man) whose interests we have been elected to serve," he added.
In the report, government said it remains committed to ensuring "inclusive growth" by improving rural infrastructure in a "comprehensive manner" through the second phase (2009-10 to 2014-15) of Bharat Nirman. "Efforts are being continued to provide electricity, safe drinking water, all weather roads, telephones and broadband connectivity to all eligible villages or habitations and substantially augment rural housing stock and irrigationpotential," it added.
The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has provided nearly 600 crore person-days of work at a total expenditure of around Rs 70,000 crore since its inception in 2006, government said. During 2009-10, about 4.90 crore households have been provided employment through 40.98 lakh works with 251 crore person-days of employment being generated at a total expenditure of Rs 33,087 crore, it said.