Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh today sought more budgetary allocation from Finance Ministry for Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a flagship scheme launched by the first NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"Finance Ministry also appreciates our efforts as far as the PMGSY is concerned. The more funds...The more connectivity, more prosperity, and more reason to our GDP," he said after inaugurating initiatives under PMGSY on 'Good Governance Day' to mark Vajpayee's birthday.
Singh's statement assumes significance as the Finance Ministry is in the process of preparing the budget for the next fiscal.
For 2014-15 fiscal, the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram had presented an interim budget in February followed by a regular budget by the NDA government in July.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be presenting the first full-fledged budget in February, 2015.
Vajpayee government had launched the PMGSY to provide connectivity to unconnected habitations as part of a poverty reduction strategy.
Launched in the year 2000, the government has built thousands of kilometres of all weather roads connecting unconnected rural habitations in the country.
The Ministry, under Birender Singh, is now trying to bring down the cost of constructing roads rationalising norms and prioritising maintenance of already constructed PMGSY roads.
The Ministry, under the PMGSY, is also giving more priority to give increased connectivity in the international border areas.
Addressing the programme, Singh suggested that waste materials, particularly, plastics should be used for constructing rural roads under the scheme.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Clean India Mission, the Minister said due to its biodegradability, plastic creates stagnation of water and associated hygiene problems and in order to contain this problem plastic waste can be reused productively in the construction of roads.
