BHUBANESWAR: About 5,000 km of gram panchayat roads, which are not covered under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), will be concretised by pooling funds from different schemes.All the ‘kutcha’ and black-topped roads, maintained by GPs and panchayat samitis, will be converted to concrete roads through convergence of NREGS, Backward Region Grants Fund (BRGF), Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana (GGY) and 13th Finance Commission award. While 24 districts are covered under NREGS, the Centre is providing ` 15 crore each to 19 under-developed districts under BRGF. Each of the 11 districts not covered under BRGF is provided a similar amount under GGY. Special Projects Commissioner of Panchayati Raj Department SK Lohani said nearly 50,000 km out of 1.71 lakh km panchayat roads needed a facelift. Meanwhile, about 18,000 km of panchayat roads have been improved. The Department concretised nearly 4,000-km roads last year. The Department has funds to the tune of ` 800 crore under various schemes and the same could be utilised to improve panchayat roads. The Department has planned to utilise ` 165 crore from GGY and ` 150 crore from BRGF for road projects. Under the State scheme, the Government has provided ` 100 crore for panchayat roads. The Department has an unspent balance of ` 200 crore while the 13th Finance Commission has sanctioned ` 150 crore for sanitation and drinking water. The Department has decided to utilise the funds available for rural sanitation for construction of concrete roads with drainage system.Convergence of the schemes to develop concrete roads will lead to creation of permanent infrastructure and there will not be any recurring expenditure for road maintenance. The State Government is incurring huge expenditure for maintenance of panchayat roads. The road maintenance funds will be utilised for construction of concrete roads. Official sources said ` 3.5 lakh will be set aside per each gram panchayat for construction of concrete roads. The State Government has stopped construction of black-topped roads by the Panchayati Raj Institutions, including zilla parishad, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), panchayat samiti, block and gram panchayats under welfare schemes. In a recent circular to district collectors, the Panchayati Raj Department asked them to identify ‘kutcha’ roads of two most populous villages in each panchayat for development.
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