Odisha Govt to extend GGT scheme to all districts of the state

The Odisha government today decided to extend its flagship programme of Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana (GGY) to all the 30 districts in the state.
This was decided at the performance review meeting of the state panchayati raj department.
"Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed to extend the GGY to all 30 districts in view of the Centre discontinuing funding under BRGF and IAP," said state panchayati raj minister Arun Kumar Sahoo.
Though the state used to annually get Rs 250 crore under the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) and Rs 524 crore under the Integrated Action Plan (IAP), there was no provision for the state in the Centre's 2015-16 budget.

Keeping in view of the requirements of the backward districts, the state government extended the GGY from ten districts to all districts of the state, Sahoo said.
Earlier, the state government had implemented the GGY only for the coastal districts after the Centre introduced BRGF for the development of the backward districts, he said.

The state would provide Rs 650 crore every year under the GGY, the minister said adding the focus has been on the improvement of the drinking water and road infrastructure in the backward districts.
The meeting chaired by Patnaik also decided to restructure the panchayats keeping in view the population ratio, geographical area and administrative facilities.

This apart, the meeting resolved to construct concrete roads in all villages and also to convert all 10.35 lakh kuchha houses into pucca houses in the next four years.
So far 3.52 lakh pucca houses have been constructed, the minister said.
Among others, it was also decided to reduce the interest rate by one per cent over loans given to women self-help groups, Sahoo added.