Provision Also For Smart Counties In 2015-16 Budget: PHD Chamber

India Inc. is eagerly awaiting an announcement in the forthcoming budget for setting up of Smart Counties across the country with a budgetary allocations on lines of 100 smart cities for which provisioning already made to the tune of over Rs.7,000 crores in the budget proposals for 2014-15 by the Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, according to a random assessment conducted under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on budgetary expectations for fiscal 2015-16.

PHD Chamber which largely represents the MSMEs segment of India Inc. is of the view that Smart Counties are also the need of hour as created with cluster approach with all digital facilities amalgamated with them will end up fuelling the migration and purge the present urban and semi-urban congestion on their infrastructure, economy, industry and civic amenities, says the President of the Chamber, Mr. Sharad Jaipuria.

It also holds that at a time when aspirations of masses, especially that of rural India are rising and hopes being aroused for their realization under the present dispensation being led by Prime Minister Modi, the concept of Smart Counties would be an instant success as it would involve optimum utilization of rural agriculture, land, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry, housing, water, sanitation, school, health and the like.

The Chamber has pointed out that the identified assets and areas listed out above are virtually dysfunctional in the rural India and its countryside need a new vision to make them fertile as the campaign for digital India launched by the present government cannot alone harness this hidden potential for which separate policy measures are required to be rolled out in the form of Smart Counties.

The Smart Counties should have digital connectivity and easy access to information technology as also digital infrastructure and the proposed project be monitored by Panchayats with necessary inputs for their design and layout be recommended by panel of experts drawn from joint exercise conducted by Union Rural Development Department in consultations with states concerned for which funding be arranged from both central as well as states pool.

Human force being engaged under MGNREGA can also be utilized for putting in place some initial infrastructure for the proposed Counties before the mega projects are awarded after having been performed the due diligence, concluded Mr. Jaipuria adding that Parliamentarians have already come forward to adopt Counties for their transformation with their Parliamentary and Assembly funds allocated to elected representatives to initiate the development of their respective constituencies.

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