The first road falling under Centre's Road Development Scheme for left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected districts has been constructed between Konta to Golapalli in heavily insurgency infested Sukma district of Bastar.
The State Public Works Department (PWD) has completed the work of three meter wide road. Similarly construction of other roads under the scheme are underway in Sukma district, officials informed.
The Chhattisgarh Government for connecting the hinterlands of insurgency infested regions with the rest of the State has been trying to develop road network in Maoist stronghold regions.
Similar endeavours under the direction of district Collector Sukma Neeraj Kumar Bansod is going on in the insurgency-hit district.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh government announced early this month that it will soon commence work for construction of as many as 92 roads falling in left Wing Extremism (lWE) hit districts of the State.
Of the total 153 roads to be constructed in seven lWE districts of Chhattisgarh under ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana’ (PMGSY), tenders have been invited for 92 roads, said an official, adding that the estimated expenditure for construction of these roads would be around Rs163.17 crores. The tenders had already been awarded for 90 roads, officials stated.
As per information received, Chief Minister Raman Singh had recently reviewed the progress of ongoing preparations to complete the road construction works in a meeting held with Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ajay Chandrakar and his Department officials.
Notably, following the problems being encountered during road construction works in lWE districts, the Chief Minister has sent a proposal to the Centre for re-inviting tenders for construction of 92 PMGSY roads.
It needs to be mentioned that these roads were sanctioned for seven districts of Bastar division between 2001-02 and 2008-09, of which 35 roads were sanctioned for Bastar, Kondagaon (18), Kanker (12), Sukma (8), Nayaranpur (8), Bijapur (7) and Dantewada (4), said officials , adding that administrative approval of Rs149.66 crore was given for construction the roads.
As of now, Rs62.25 crore has been spent on construction of 92 roads and remaining works will be carried out with pending amount, the officials informed.
Information received from District Collectors of respective districts highlighted that as many as 267 road construction works were sanctioned under PMGSY between 2001-02 and 2008-09, of which 114 road works are in progress while 153 works were hindered due to Naxal problem.
Based on information that 92 pending works could be started again, the Chief Minister had directed officials of Panchayat and Rural Development to table a proposal for re-inviting the tenders of road works to the Central government. After necessary approvals from the Centre, the Department has floated tenders for road construction works.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among the seven worst left Wing Extremism (lWE) states which been allocated Rs228.56 crore as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) by Union Ministry of Home Affairs, officials stated.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had approved the State-wise allocation of Additional Central Assistance of Rs1000 crores to 35 worst lWE affected districts in seven States.
Out of these 35 districts, there are 16 lWE affected districts in Jharkhand, 8 in Chhattisgarh, 6 in Bihar, 2 in Odisha and one each in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has allocated fund Rs28.57 crores per district. Thus, Jharkhand is allocated Rs 457.12 crore, Chhattisgarh Rs 228.56 crore, Bihar Rs171.42 crore, Odisha Rs57.14 crore and Rs28.57 crore each to the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
In an attempt to boost-up developmental works in insurgency-hit districts, the Chhattisgarh Government has decided to fix three percent amount of cost of construction works funded by the Centre as ‘protection component’.
An order in this regard has been issued from Mantralaya recently.
The would be applicable at the outset for three insurgency-hit districts of Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada in Bastar region.
A circular in this regard has been issued to Chairman of Revenue Board, all departments of the State government, head of the departments and district collectors, officials stated.
As per the circular, three percent amount of the project cost will be included as ‘protection component’ in proposal (estimated) of bigger projects to be sent to the Centre for the aforesaid three districts.
It may be recalled that Chhattisgarh is among five insurgency infested states which have been working feverishly towards meeting all the project deadlines prescribed by the Centre for left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected districts.
The Centre has asked lWE affected States for adhering to the time-lines for appropriate utilization of budget available with them for developing infrastructure in the lWE districts.