Bihar gives go ahead to guidelines on new scheme

[1]

Bihar government on Tuesday gave a go ahead to the guidelines framed for new chief minister area development scheme in place of the scrapped MLAs, MLCs local area development fund scheme.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet presided over by chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, additional secretary, Cabinet secretariat department Upendra Kumar said the cabinet gave its nod to the the draft of the guidelines and other related procedural systems which would make the implemenation of the new CM area development scheme ''crystal clear.''

The state government had scrapped the earlier MLAs, MLCs local area development scheme and decided to implement the new scheme with effect from April 1, 2011, Kumar said.

Kumar informed that the new scheme was launched in order to avoid imbalance in regional development and ''hence forward, the development work will be carried out under the scheme on the basis of geographic units instead of earlier procedure of doing work in the constituency-wise.''

''Under the new scheme, 85 per cent of development work will be carried out in rural areas and rest 15 per cent in urban areas'', he said.

The planning development department would work a nodal agency for construction of panchayat Sarkar Bhavans, Anganvadi Bhavans, road construction and other structural works under the scheme, he said adding the district committees would be responsible for sanctioning the shemes under the chairmanship of the ministers-in-charge of the concerned districts.

The state Cabinet also decided to provide family pension to one or two widows of government servants who die after retirement, Kumar said.