(Express Illustrations)
NEW DELHI: While villages along the country’s northern border mainly adjoining China were promised a major connectivity push with the announcement of a new scheme in the Union Budget, areas along the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan have not seen much development in the past two years.
Rajasthan was not provided any financial assistance from the Centre for development of border areas in the last and current financial year. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai shared this information in Parliament on Wednesday, stating that Rajasthan could not be issued financial assistance due to non-utilisation of funds by the state.
Rai was responding to a question from KC Venugopal of Congress, who asked whether government intends to approve Rajasthan’s annual action plan for 2020-21 and 2021-22 under Border Area Development Programme (BADP). Rai informed Rajya Sabha that the last Annual Action Plan submitted by Rajasthan is for 2021-2022 and that over the last few years, the unspent amount in Rajasthan remains Rs 51.28 crore.
BADP covers 111 districts in 17 states to meet special development needs of border population, with focus on people living within 50 kilometers of the International Border. In Rajasthan, the programme is being implemented in 16 blocks of four districts — Barmer, Bikaner, Ganganagar and Jaisalmer.
