The roads will be upgraded in the border districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Taran Taran and Pathankot, and the state government has been asked to prepare a comprehensive proposal in this regard, the Minister said, addressing a conference on 'Rural Development Policy' here.
"I have been asked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to work out a special scheme for border districts of Punjab," he said in his address.
The Union Minister said that 1950 km of road would also be upgraded in rest of 16 districts of Punjab this year under PMGSY.
He said that on the lines of tribal and Naxal areas, the condition of minimum inhabitation of 500 persons for providing road connectivity under PMGSY would be relaxed to 250 persons in the case of border districts.
The Minister further announced that the Centre has decided to remove the BPL/APL condition for providing funds under the rural sanitation programmes of the Ministry in order to enlarge the scope of beneficiaries.
Referring to the inadequate amount of funds available for construction of a toilet under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), Ramesh informed that the Government has decided to increase this limit to Rs 9,500 from the next month from Rs 3,500 at present.
Of this, Rs 5,000 would be available as direct subsidy and Rs 4,500 would be available under MNREGA.
