In order to give further boost to the rural infrastructure development in the state, the Chief Secretary, Vini Mahajan, said that the state has prioritised projects to the tune of Rs 1,022 crore from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) under RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund)-XXVII.Chairing the high-powered committee meeting to review the progress of various ongoing NABARD-funded projects, here, the Chief Secretary informed that these projects will ensure infrastructure development in the countryside during the current fiscal.While reviewing the progress of the ongoing RIDF projects, Ms Mahajan directed all the administrative departments to focus on optimum utilisation of the funds availed from the NABARD and accelerate the pace of execution of these projects to ensure that the envisaged benefits could reach the eligible beneficiaries.Sharing the progress of ongoing infrastructure projects in the state, Chief General Manager NABARD, Punjab, Dr Rajiv Siwach, informed that four projects, involving RIDF assistance of Rs 714.15-crore have already been sanctioned by NABARD and another two projects submitted by the state were also in the process of getting sanctioned.
Considering the high performance of the state, he said the normative allocation for RIDF-XXVII has been enhanced from Rs 500-crore to Rs 750-crore for the current financial year.The Chief Secretary asked all administrative departments to ensure maximise availment of funds and undertake the projects in different fields, especially education, irrigation, water supply and sanitation, public works (roads and bridges), health, construction of godowns, installation of solar water pumping units, soil and water conservation in the right earnest.The state has already availed Rs 265.72-crore under RIDF during the current fiscal so far, said she, while expressing hope to reach ((exceed)) the committed availment of Rs 560.2-crore within this year.Besides the RIDF projects, the progress of projects under micro irrigation fund, warehousing infrastructure fund, food processing fund and dairy development infrastructure funds were also reviewed during the meeting.Principal Secretaries Sarvjit Singh (Water Resources), KAP Sinha (Finance), K Siva Prasad (Cooperation), Vikas Pratap (PWD), Alok Shekhar (Health and Medical Education), Jaspreet Talwar (Water Supply and Sanitation), and Secretary School Education Krishan Kumar also attended the meeting.