Jairam Ramesh writes a letter to Narendra Modi

New Delhi, 1 March 2013

In a letter to the Gujarat Chief Minister, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that under the Indira Awas Yojana scheme, the Gujarat government could sanction only 99,925 houses against the target of 1,36,470 homes in the last one year. Following is part of Jairam Ramesh’s letter to Narendra Modi:

The first installment of Rs 134.24 crore as Central share (75 per cent) was released in the beginning of this financial year. The first installment was released only for 16 districts as the other districts could not avail the second installment during the year 2011/12. The Ministry has received proposal for second installment from 11 districts only during the current fiscal. Gujarat has 26 districts. Officials of my Ministry are in active communication with your officers. I request that instructions may be issued to submit all relevant information at the earliest to enable us to release amount due to Gujarat.

Jairam Ramesh is extra vigilant and active on this front because Rural Development Ministry could spend only Rs 55,000 crore out of the budget estimate of Rs 75,000 crore for its various flagship programmes in the current fiscal.