M.P. seeks Central funds for roads

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, DEC. 25. The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. Digvijay Singh, today urged the Union Government to give adequate funds to the State for building a proper network of roads across the State.

The Chief Minister made this assertion at a function held here to launch the Prime Minister's Rural Road Scheme. With the formation of Chhattisgarh State, Madhya Pradesh is still left with over 51000 villages, he said, adding that only about 8000 of these are connected by road. For linking all the villages in the State, nearly Rs. 10,000 crores were needed whereas what the Centre proposed to offer for implementing the Rural Road project was only a sum of Rs. 213 crores per annum, he pointed out.

The Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Minister, Mr. Ajay Singh, who also addressed the gathering, joined the Chief Minister in expressing concern and conveying to the Centre that the funds being offered by the Central Government for rural roads were grossly inadequate to meet the gigantic task of linking the villages in the State by road.

According to the Panchayat Minister, the State should receive at least Rs. 350 crores annually from the Centre for rural roads, keeping in view the large size and population of this State.

Spelling out the State Government's focussed approach to improve the condition of roads in the State, the Chief Minister said that the basic thrust would be on improving the already existing roads and the creation of new roads would be the subsequent priority.

The Chief Minister said the existing system of allotting road building contracts to small contractors was a failure since they never laid any stress on maintaining the quality of output.

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Section  : Other States
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