By IANS
New Delhi : Corruption in road construction was "spreading like cancer", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Wednesday, and hoped that government programmes like Bharat Nirman could be implemented in a transparent manner.
Inaugurating a national conference on rural roads, organised by the rural development ministry, the prime minister said: "I am concerned about the fact that we invest millions of rupees every year on road construction and maintenance, and yet with every monsoon our roads get worn."
Stressing the need for improving quality benchmarks for roads, he added: "Corruption in road construction projects has spread like cancer to every corner of our vast country. I sincerely hope we can implement both the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and Bharat Nirman without this affliction, and in a transparent and accountable manner."
Underlining the need for better and more effective rural road connectivity, Manmohan Singh cited studies to say: "A million rupees spent on roads has seven times the impact on poverty reduction as compared to similar spending on specific anti-poverty programmes.
"Inter-state comparisons also show that expenditure on rural connectivity has a robust negative correlation with rural poverty. Some micro level studies also show that villages having good all weather road connectivity record better attendance of schoolteachers and doctors, paramedical personnel at their work places.
"Expansion of the rural road network, therefore, can have a multiplier, wider positive impact on development, well-being and welfare of the people."
He suggested the need for adopting measures to evolve cost-effective technologies for construction of rural roads as well as to make road construction as labour intensive as possible.
According to the prime minister, the Bharat Nirman programme envisages a time bound business plan to provide all weather rural road connectivity to 66,000 villages.
"The investment requirement for achieving this goal has been estimated at Rs.480 billion ($11.8 billion). In order to ensure full funding of this programme, we have not only expanded the funds available under the PMGSY, but also created a special window under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). This is being administered by NABARD," Manmohan Singh said.
The prime minister released a book, "Rural Roads: Vision 2025", on the occasion.
Also present at the event were union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.