MP slums to get Rs 100 crore

258 urban slums & 51,000 villages earmarked for all-round development

The Madhya Pradesh government will earmark Rs 100 crore for the Gokul Gram and Ayodhya Basti schemes in the state Budget, to be presented in the Assembly on February 18.

It has selected 258 urban slum areas under Ayodhya Basti Scheme. The scheme has been launched in MP to ensure all-round development in the slum areas. Similarly, it has embarked upon the Gokul Gram Yojana to ameliorate the conditions of the 51,000-odd villages of the state.

The scheme aims at providing better education, sanitation, health, drinking water, irrigation facilities, besides preserving the environment and ensuring efficient administration by putting to optimum use locally available resources in the villages under the scheme.

"The state government has finalised a plan to allocate Rs 100 crore for the schemes," a source in the department of finance told Business Standard.

Chief Minister Babulal Gaur said . He has asked the finance minister to allocate Rs 100 crore for the Gokul Gram and Ayodhya Basti schemes in the Budget.

During the current Budget session, MLAs in the opposition raised objection to the governor's speech mentioning the Gokul Gram and Ayodhya Basti schemes. "The government has no funds," Hamid Quazi, an MLA from western Madhya Pradesh, told Business Standard, adding, "that is why we had raised objection."

The scheme includes attending to five slum areas in each big city and one in each small city. Further, 2,000 slums will be provided basic amenities in four years.

The bastis so far selected district-wise include one each in Morena, Shivpuri, Dhar, Damoh and Khandwa; two each in Harda, Damoh, Dindori, and Sidhi; three in Sheopur; four each in Katni, Narsinghpur, and Umariya; five each in Guna, Bhopal, Vidisha, and Balaghat; six each in Hoshangabad, Badwani, and Panna; seven each in Raisen, Mandsaur, and Sagar; eight each in Neemuch and Ratlam; ten in Gwalior; eleven each in Ujjain, Tikamgarh, and Satna; twelve each in Shajapur and Chhindwada; thirteen each in Indore, Jabalpur, and Dewas; and fifteen in Chhatarpur.