On progress path : Bishunpur village in Gumla district

Ranchi, Oct. 25: Villagers bearing the brunt of Maoist terror will get more by way of a house-building grant as per a central scheme, the decision seen as an acknowledgement of the perils of left wing extremism that has embedded itself in 11 of 24 districts of Jharkhand.

The per unit allocation under Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), meant to provide housing to the rural poor, has now been increased by Rs 3,500 which means that those living in any of the 11 rebel-infested districts would get Rs 48,500 to build a pucca home instead of Rs 45,000.

“We recently got an approval from the Centre with regard to increasing the per unit cost of IAY. The decision has been taken keeping in mind that villagers need to invest more to build homes in the 11 districts where left wing extremism has taken root given the difficult terrain,” rural development secretary Santosh Kumar Satpathy told The Telegraph.

The 11 districts listed by the Centre as worst effected by Maoist violence are Bokaro, Chatra, Garhwa, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Latehar, Lohardaga, West Singhbhum, Palamau, East Singhbhum and Ramgarh.

There is good news for villagers of other districts too as one lakh more IAY dwellings have been sanctioned across the state for 2010-11 fiscal. According to Satpathy, 67,000 units were earlier allocated for the ongoing fiscal, but with the new additions, more BPL families would benefit.

In another development, Planning Commission has agreed to increase the cap on the length of bridges being built under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

“Earlier, there was a 50-metre cap on the length of a bridge built under PMGSY. But since several areas required longer bridges, the commission has now increased the limit to 75 metre,” commission’s member secretary Sudha Pillai had told The Telegraph during her recent visit to Ranchi.

Under PMGSY, a scheme funded entirely by the Centre, Satpathy said the plan was to lay about 3,800 km rural roads at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore this fiscal.

The backlog in executing various phases of PMGSY is, however, an area of serious concern for the state. Several projects which were to be completed by 2005, 2006 are still pending.