The State Government on Friday urged the Centre to provide more funds to Odisha under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and deploy a Centre-run agency to take up road and bridge construction works in the Maoist-hit districts of the State.
Rural Development Minister Badri Narayan Patra met Union Rural Development Minister Chaudhury Virendra Singh in New Delhi and made these demands on Friday evening. Patra requested the Union Minister to release current year’s pending amount of Rs 128 crore soon and sanction the entire Rs 1800-crore project submitted by the State Government. He also urged Singh to include some districts of Odisha, where PMGSY works have been completed fully, in the second phase of the PMGSY.
Patra requested him to release State’s demand of Rs 1600 crore towards cyclone ‘Phailin’ restoration works. Besides, Patra suggested that the Centre-run construction agencies be engaged to take up road and bridge construction works in Maoist-hit pockets of the State.
In response, the Union Minister agreed to include only one district in the PMGSY Phase-2 and to engage the National Bridge Construction Company for construction of roads and bridges in the interior pockets in the first phase and other agencies in subsequent phases. A Central team would soon visit Red-hit areas and further action for deployment of other agencies would be considered, Singh said.
