Assam's rural road network gets a boost

The Union government has decided to relax norms for Assam so that it can get benefits at par with tribal areas and hill states for constructing rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

The Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh said this on December 1. He added that so far under PMGSY programme, the criteria is that habitations with a population of more than 500 will be taken up for connectivity, except in the hill states and in tribal areas of the country where the population norm is 250.

The Minister told the media that Assam is not classified as a tribal area or as a hill state. In Assam, the population criteria is 500. The Cabinet in its meeting last week has directed the Minister to come back to it within one month's time to change the criteria for Assam so that all habitation with 250 plus population gets connected under the PMGSY programme, he added.

The government's move will benefit over 3,000 habitations and entail construction of an additional 2,500 kms of roads in Assam.