The Centre has released Rs 8.86 crore to seven states for development of wasteland.
This is the first installment of funds in 2001-02 fiscal issued by the rural development ministry under the integrated wasteland development programme(IWDP). This will be spent in 19 districts of seven states through the district rural development agencies (DRDAs).
The second installment will be released to the DRDAs only after they utilise at least half of the allotted amount and submit abstracts of approved work programmes.
The districts to benefit from this assistance include Warangal (Rs 70 lakh) in Andhra Pradesh; Toothukudi (Rs 40 lakh) in Tamil Nadu; Kasaragod (Rs 52.39 lakh) and Kannur (Rs 24.44 lakh) in Kerala; Durg (Rs 10 lakh), Raipur (Rs 19.51 lakh) and Rajnandgaon (Rs 62.47 lakh) in Chhatisgarh; Sagar (Rs 67 lakhs), Ratlam (Rs 69.29 lakh), Chattarpur (Rs 69.97 lakh), Shivpuri (Rs 55.11 lakh), Shajapur (Rs 37 lakh) and Neemuch (Rs 40.43 lakh) in Madhya Pradesh; Tuensang (Rs 48,000) in Nagaland; and Kokrajhar (Rs 49.35 lakh), Karimganj (Rs 39.40 lakh), Morigaon (Rs 55 lakh) Cachar (Rs 61.25 lakh) and Dibrugarh (Rs 47.56 lakh) in Assam.
