Patna, Aug. 21: The Centre has agreed to give additional funds to the state for constructing 12,033 houses under the Prime Minister's rural housing scheme and also started clearing the state's pending dues under the rural job guarantee scheme in what political circles interpreted as Bihar starting to experience the benefits of chief minister Nitish Kumar tying up with the BJP.

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin, launched in November 2016, aims to construct 3 crore rural homes in the country by the year 2022 for poor people.

It is a revamped version of the earlier Indira Awas Yojana, the change being that the houses to be constructed now have an area of 25 square metre as opposed to the 20 square metre houses under the old scheme.

As the new rural homes scheme was launched in the second half of 2016-17, work under it is being carried out in the current fiscal (2017-18) as well.

Under the new scheme, Bihar had been given the target of constructing 6,37,658 houses for the year 2016-17 but the state reduced the target by 12,033 units, expressing inability to meet the target with the funds the Centre had sanctioned.

"We had to redo the numbers because in the 11 districts covered by the integrated action plan (IAP) a sum of Rs 1.3 lakh had to be earmarked for one dwelling unit whereas in non-IAP districts the sum to be given for one unit is Rs 1.2 lakh," an official in the state rural development department said.

IAP districts are the most backward, Maoist-infested districts, including Aurangabad, Gaya, Jehanabad, Rohtas and Munger.

According to the scheme, the Centre and the states share the project cost in a ratio of 60:40. In 2016-17, the Centre had sanctioned Rs 2,387.39 crore as its share against which the state sanctioned Rs 1,591.59 crore.

Bihar had flagged the funds issue with the Centre but nothing had nothing happened. Now, the Centre has agreed to release additional funds.

"The Centre has accepted our request for sanctioning additional funds and I thank the central government for this gesture," rural development department minister Shravan Kumar told The Telegraph.

The rural development department official explained: "Now that the Centre has agreed to provide additional funds for construction of additional 12,033 dwelling units to meet the original target, an additional sum around Rs 145 crore would be required of which the Centre would provide Rs 87 crore. We have been intimated about this sanction."

The Centre, the official added, has sanctioned construction of 5.38 lakh houses for the year 2017-18 but not yet released the funds for that.

Of the homes sanctioned in 2016-17, the state government has so far approved construction of 3,09,909 units of which work on 1,71,989 units have begun. Around 2500 beneficiaries have been given the second instalment and 38 have been given the final instalment of the fund, which is released in three instalments on the basis of progress made in work.

MNREGA money

The Centre has also started clearing the past dues of the state for projects under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).

The state had been pleading for clearing the MNREGA dues from the Centre for the period of 2012-13 to 2016-17.

"There was a due of around Rs 1,200 crore for works done under MNREGA but now the dues are being gradually cleared by the Centre," said minister Shravan Kumar.

"The backlog has now come down to around Rs 1,000 crore and we hope that it would be cleared soon."