Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today launched a Rs 60,000 crore rural roads project and an ambitious scheme for ensuring food security for all involving an annual subsidy of Rs 2,300 crore. Launching these schemes on his 76th birthday, Vajpayee said the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana' and Antyodaya Anna Yojana' would play a key role in accelerating the process of socio-economic development in rural areas. He said the rural roads project, the first centrally- sponsored scheme after independence, would be implemented on a time-bound basis and promised that requisite funds would be arranged for it from various sources.
Stating that the programme had immense potential to boost the economy of rural areas, he said every village with a population of over 1,000 persons would be connected through good, all-weather roads within the next three years while villages with more than 500 persons would be connected by 2007 at a total investment of Rs 60,000 crore. About the 'Antyodaya Anna Yojana', Vajpayee said that through the scheme one crore families comprising around five crore poorest of the poor would be provided 25 kg of grains per month at the rate of Rs 2 a kg for wheat and Rs 3 a kg for rice involving an annual subsidy of Rs 2300 crore. The prime minister also launched the Netaji Subhash Saksharta Mission aimed at completely eradicating illiteracy from the country within a short span of time.
Bureau Report