Emphasising on the importance of road network for the development of rural areas in Bihar, the state government today proposed to build roads for habitats with 250 people over the next five years.
"We have decided to connect all habitats with 250 people with roads under the Mukhya Mantri Gram Sampark Yojana (MMGSY) over the next five years," Rural Works minister Shrawan Kumar said in the Assembly while replying to a debate on his department's demand for Rs 5292.86 crore to meet various expenditure in 2014-15.
Under the MMGSY, it has been decided to build roads of around 37,908-km over the next five years for which the Rural Works department has prepared a roadmap for the block-wise state core network, he said.
Kumar said that his department has built 44,633.51-km of roads and 107 bridges at a cost of Rs 20,638 crores over the past eight years to improve connectivity in rural areas.
Stressing on the need of maintenance of chain of rural roads in Bihar, the Rural Works Minister said that a new maintenance policy was framed last year under which his department has undertaken repairing of 4256 km roads at a cost of Rs 1400 crore.
Kumar also rued that the Central government has discriminated against Bihar by not releasing full quota of its fund under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and related projects.
"We received only Rs 642 crore from the Centre against the allotment of Rs 2500 crore last fiscal while only Rs 460 crore has been released this fiscal against allocation of Rs 11,000 crore," he alleged.
Opposition BJP MLAs, however, expressed dissatisfaction with Kumar's speech about his department's achievement and staged walk out with barely five minutes to go for conclusion of the day's business in the Assembly.
The House later passed Kumar's demand for expenditure by a voice-vote.
