TNI Bureau: The union government approved Rs.250 crore ($50 million) for the KBK districts of Odisha on Thursday to meet expenses on development projects in backward regions under the state component of the Backward Regions Grant Funds (BRGF).
In fact, the govt gave nod to a fund of Rs.1, 500 crore ($300 million) in total for Bihar and Odisha. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh allowed the proposals for “continuing the special plan for the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) districts of Odisha in 2012-13 at a meeting in Delhi with an allocation of Rs.250 crore.
The BRGF aims to speed up socio-economic development in the scheduled states to catalyze development in backward areas. It was approved by the CCEA in August, 2006. The implementation of this programme is being executed by the State Governments.
District Component and State Component are the two parts of BRGF. While the District component covers 272 backward districts in 27 States, the State component includes Special Plan for Bihar, Special Plan for the KBK districts of Odisha, Special Plan for West Bengal (covered in 2011-12), Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Selected Tribal and Backward Districts (covered in 2010-11) and Bundelkhand Package (covered in 2009-10).
All the 38 districts of Bihar, eight districts of the KBK region and 13 districts of Bundelkhand region are covered under the purview of the programme.
Since the present approval of Rs 250 crore to the KBK districts of Odisha (along with the other grant to other states) is valid only for the Eleventh Five Year Plan period, it is now proposed to continue these programmes in 2012-13 in its present form.
The possibility of restructuring the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) including the District Component as well as the State Component for the period 2013-14 to 2016-17, which comes under the 12th five year plan, is being considered.