New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while announcing Rs 4,800 crore rural road project, blame corruption for poor quality of rural roads and said corruption is spreading like ‘cancer’.
"A major reason for poor quality roads is corruption and the lack of quality assurance. Corruption in road construction projects has spread like cancer to every corner of our vast country," he said.
The Government on Wednesday pledged to dramatically step up its spending on roads in rural areas, where the government wants to boost sluggish farm growth and raise hundreds of millions of people from abject poverty.
The Prime Minister told a conference that Rs 4,800 crore would now be spent on a four-year project ending in 2009 to connect 66,000 villages.
"Rural road connectivity is a critical component of our overall strategy for rural development. It promotes access to economic and social services and facilitates the growth processes on our rural economy," Singh said.
Singh's premiership has seen annual growth rates of between 8 and 9 per cent, but analysts say his government has failed to provide the investment in infrastructure and education needed to build a solid base for future expansion.
The Prime Minister told Government officials that corruption was holding back development.
In the fiscal year that ended in March the Finance Ministry pledged to spend Rs 520 crore on the rural road network.
Better village roads would help India cut farmers' transport costs, promote crop diversification and create more non-farm jobs, the Prime Minister, who leads a coalition government headed by the Congress party and supported by communists, said.
Sixty per cent of India's one billion plus population are dependent on the farm sector, and rural consumption contributes significantly to overall growth.
Farm expansion has stagnated at around 2 per cent in recent years, and the government wants to double that to sustain an average 9 per cent growth up to the fiscal year 2011/12.
The road building is part of the ambitious Rs 17,400 crore "Bharat Nirman" scheme to improve infrastructure, boost rural incomes and bridge the urban-rural divide.
Financing will come from direct budget support and a Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, Singh said, adding states must ensure roads are built on time.
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