Bhubaneswar, May 24: A World Bank team today turned down the Orissa government’s proposal for releasing a loan of Rs 1,000 crore in a single instalment for the implementation of the Targeted Rural Initiative for Poverty Termination and Infrastructure scheme.
The proposal was made by the government at a meeting between the visiting team and senior state officials at the secretariat here today.
Now, the funds would be available in phases. Leader of the six-member World Bank team Talib Esmail said, “We’ll talk to the central government and then submit our report to the World Bank.”
The team was convinced that the project was feasible and said a detailed report would be prepared with the assistance of government officials. The members asked for some engineers and finance and administrative officers to assist in the preparation of the report. The government is understood to have agreed to meet their demands.
Earlier this month, the government had submitted a proposal to the World Bank through the Centre for the implementation of a Rs 1,350-crore poverty elimination project in 6,234 gram panchayats in the state. The programme envisaged providing connectivity in four areas ? physical, electronic, economic and knowledge.
The basic objectives of the programme are improvement in the areas of communication, agriculture, education, health, water and sanitation and disaster mitigation.
Under the programme, every village in the selected panchayats will have proper drainage systems, pipe water supply and sanitation facilities.
The panchayati raj department had requested the World Bank team to provide a Rs 1,000-crore loan. The remaining Rs 350 crore would have been provided by the government.
The project will be implemented in 10 districts of the state, including Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Khurda, Puri, Ganjam, Bolangir, Kalahandi and Nuapada over a period of five years.
Last week, the World Bank team visited some districts to study the working of the panchayati raj institutions and their role in developing infrastructure.
