Our Bureau

New Delhi , Nov. 12

THE President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has stressed the need to implement Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) in `mission mode' to drive growth in far-flung areas and said at least 100 PURA complexes need to be launched by the end of 2006.

"We have been talking about PURA as a growth driver of our economy for the last few years... Time has now come for consolidating all the thoughts, which have emerged in the development of PURA by different agencies. Also, we should realise that the Government has made a number of enabling provisions for growth of PURAs in different regions. Now is the time to work out and embark on the development of specific PURAs in every State," Dr Kalam said inaugurating a national workshop, `Vision 2020-India: PURA and Growth Centres for Making India a Developed Nation,' organised at the IIT here.

He noted that certain States such as Chattisgarh had taken the lead and created viable PURA models. "There is a need to consolidate all these experiences and launch at least 100 PURAs before the end of 2006 by the collaborative effort of societal organisations, educational institutions, bankers, industrialists, entrepreneurs and the Government. I would suggest that the participants of this workshop formulate a plan of action for preparing detailed project reports of the hundred PURAs within the next six months and launch the PURA complexes in phases during the second half of 2006," he said.

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