Rural and Urban Development

PRADHAN MANTRI GRAM SADAK YOJANA

The Government of India, as part of poverty reduction strategy, launched the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) on 25th December, 2000 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to assist States, though roads other than National Highways are in the State List under the Constitution.
The primary objective of the programme is to provide good all weather connectivity to all eligible unconnected habitations in the core network with a population of 500 (Census-2001) and above.
In respect of hill States (North-East, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand), desert areas (as indentified in the Desert Development Programme), and tribal (Schedule V) areas and selected tribal & backward districts (as identified by Ministry of Home Affairs and Planning Commission), the objective is to connect habitations with a population of 250 (Census 2001) and above.
The programme envisages single all weather The country has now a network of about 3,99,979 km of such roads.
With a view to ensure full farm-to-market connectivity, the programme also provides for the upgradation of the existing ‘Thorough Routes’ and Major Rural Links to prescribed standards, though it is not central to the programme.
Under PMGSY—II, 10,725 projects have been cleared out of eligible 50,000 projects. As on March 31, 2014, 97,838 habitations have been connected.

INDIRA AWAS YOJANA

As part of a larger strategy of the Ministry‘s poverty eradication effort, Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development, has since inception been providing assistance to the BPL families who are either houseless or having inadequate housing facilities, for constructing a safe and durable shelter.
Ministry’s commitment of ‘shelter for all’ gained momentum when India became a signatory to the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlement in June, 1996 recognizing thereby the need for access to safe and healthy shelter and economic well being.
In the year 2013-14, 73 lakh houses have been constructed.

NATIONAL SOCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME

Article 41 of the Constitution of India directs the States to provide public assistance to its citizens in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness, and disablement.
It is in accordance with these noble principles that the Government of India on 15th August, 1995 included the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) in the Central Budget for 1995-96.
This programme was meant for providing social assistance benefit to the aged, the BPL households in the case of death of the primary breadwinner and for maternity.
The provisions were aimed at ensuring minimum national standards in addition to the benefits that the States were then providing or would provide in future.
The NSAP now comprises: