BHUBANESWAR: After delinking support to eight Central schemes, including Backward Regions Grant Funds (BRGF), the Centre has asked the State Government to furnish a report on the assets created under this special grant.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has asked the State to upload the data in the national assets directory (NAD) and submit pending utilisation certificates and audit reports, if any, before the start of the monsoon session of Parliament.
The BRGF scheme implemented in 20 backward districts of the State since 2006-07 has created assets worth about Rs 2,000 crore.
The Panchayati Raj department had taken up 89,734 projects from 2006-07 to 2013-14 and had completed 57,739 projects with an expenditure of Rs 1,775.55 crore.
In 2014-15, the department had planned 9,874 projects with a budgetary provision of Rs 396.83 crore. However, 6,484 projects were completed with an expenditure of Rs 197.84 crore.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj had released Rs 167.85 crore. The State Government is not sure whether the Centre will release balance amount for projects already under execution, sources in the department said.
The State Government had planned to make a provision of Rs 436.51 crore in 2015-16 budget for construction of 12,500 infrastructure projects approved by the planning committees of the districts covered under BRGF.
“Since the State Government has decided to extend Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana (GGY) to all 30 districts, the priority of the department will be to complete the projects under execution,” the sources said.
The State used to get Rs 250 crore under the BRGF and Rs 524 crore under Integrated Action Plan (IAP) every year. It would be difficult to meet the financial requirement from State plan fund, the sources maintained.
Earlier, the State Government had implemented the GGY only for coastal districts after the Centre introduced BRGF for the development of the backward districts.
Projects like cement concrete road, bridges (critical gap), drains, culverts, anganwadi centres, building for education institutions, hostels, irrigation, rural drinking water supply and sanitation were covered under BRGF.