Karnataka lags its neighbours, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, in both sanctions and disbursal of funds under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).
Since the inception of RIDF in 1995-96, the government of Karnataka has got a sanction of Rs 6,416.23 crore till the end of November 2011. The disbursal of funds during the same period is about Rs 4,513.33 crore, which is 70.34 per cent of the sanctions. This puts the state behind Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, according to Nabard officials.
Andhra Pradesh tops in the total sanctions at Rs 13,004.86 crore, while Tamil Nadu has got a sanction of Rs 8,228.53 crore from 1995-96 to November 30, 2011. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh has received Rs 9,772.26 crore, about 75.14 per cent of the amount sanctioned and Tamil Nadu got Rs 6,722.54 crore, about 81.70 per cent of the total sanctions.
Realising the importance of providing adequate infrastructure in rural areas for the integrated rural development and faster growth of the economy, the Centre constituted the RIDF in 1995-96 under the aegis of Nabard. The fund was created to assist state governments in completing the ongoing or new rural infrastructure projects in the areas of irrigation, roads and bridges, soil conservation, watershed management among others.
According to the State Focus Paper (SFP) released by Nabard recently, as on March 31, 2011 a corpus of Rs 1,16,000 crore has been created under RIDF with total sanctions being Rs 1,21,888.40 crore and disbursements of Rs 98,999.78 crore. Under RIDF 16th tranche, a corpus of Rs 18,000 crore has been approved by the Central government.
During 2011-12, Karnataka has got a sanction of Rs 410 crore till now and got a disbursal of Rs 317.4 crore. During the year 2010-11, the state government had availed Rs 750 crore under RIDF.
Projects sanctioned to the government of Karnataka under various tranches cover minor irrigation, flood protection works, ground water recharge, structures, roads, bridges, godowns, rural markets, primary schools, secondary schools, primary health centres and watershed development.
Over the last 16 years, sanctioned projects have made an impact in the form of increased irrigation potential, recharge of ground water, flood protection, rural connectivity, storage capacity, marketing facilities among others.
Karnataka is also the first state to make use of Nabard’s new fund, Nabard Infrastructure Development Assistance (NIDA), a new line of credit available for rural infrastructure investment to state-owned institutions. Under this fund, Nabard has sanctioned a loan of Rs 42.12 crore to the Karnataka State Warehousing Corporation for construction of 106,000 tonnes of storage space in nine districts.
The Nabard’s state focus paper has highlighted the need to develop infrastructure in a systematic and focused way and for identifying and prioritisng various projects to be supported under RIDF, a comprehensive infrastructure plan for each district may be prepared by the state government.
For planned development of infrastructure in the state, the requirements during the 12th plan may be assessed and phased over the plan period, the SFP document said.
