|
Shri Priyaranjan Das Munshi, Minister for Water Resources has informed that the Government has further relaxed the norms and from this year onwards, grant component has been introduced in Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP). Projects under fast track of the special category States receive 90% grant and 10% loan while in the case of non-special category States, the grant component is 30% and loan 70%, the Minister further informed. An incentive to convert loan to loan-grant mix is offered to the States, if projects under normal programme are completed on schedule and the period of completion for projects under fast track has been increased to 3 working seasons while for projects under normal programme to 6 to 8 working seasons, Shri Das Munshi stated. He was addressing the Members of Parliament attending the Consultative Committee meeting of the Ministry of Water Resources here today. Shri Hiten Burman, Shri Prashant Pradhan, Shri Chintan, Shri Gyan Prakash, Shri Reddy, Shri K. Subbarayan, Shri Parsuram Manjhi and Dr. Ram Krishan Kusmraia etc., (Members of Parliament), Shri V.K. Duggal, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources and senior officers of the Ministry were also present at the meeting.
Earlier, welcoming the members of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources, Shri Priyaranjan Das Munshi gave a brief background on AIBP, the subject of the discussion in the meeting. He apprised the members present that most of the irrigation projects taken up for execution in the first few Five year Plans were completed on schedule. However, the remaining projects spilled over from one Plan to the next Plan. Coupled with this, and taking up of a large number of new irrigation projects in the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78), a large number of irrigation/multi-purpose project could not be completed on schedule because of thin spreading of resources and spilled over to the next Plans. Thus, there were about 504 ongoing major, medium and Extension, Renovation and Modernisation (ERM). Irrigation projects with spill over cost of Rs. 75690 crore at the end of Eighth Five Year Plan. Concerned with this situation and with an objective to accelerate the implementation of these projects, Central government launched an AIBP during 1996-97 to provide Central Loan Assistance to major/medium projects in the country. A scheme was launched in September, 1996 with a budget provision of Rs. 500 crore. The progress of the scheme has been continuously reviewed by the Ministry of Water Resources with the State Governments and the elected representatives.
Since, commencement of the programme, 181 irrigation projects and project components have been provided CLA of about Rs. 14840 crore and has helped in creating an irrigation potential of Rs. 2.7 million hectare. The National Common Minimum Programme provides that all existing irrigation projects will be completed within 3-4 years. Keeping this in view, the government has identified about 80 major/medium last mile irrigation projects under AIBP which are expected to the completed under the remaining period of Tenth Five Year Plan.
|
