Union minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh will be touring 12 backward districts in Madhya Pradesh over the next four months to review the working of the flagship schemes of the central government.
Speaking at a state-level party program here, Mr. Ramesh assured leader of opposition in the state assembly Ajay Singh that he would personally tour districts like Jhabua and Sidhi among others to review the working of the centre's flagship schemes.
Mr. Ramesh was speaking at a state-level Congress-party programme to train congress workers to ensure better awareness and implementation of centrally sponsored schemes
The minister, in a subsequent interaction with journalists, denied any discrimination in allocation of funds to states like Madhya Pradesh by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).
In fact, Madhya Pradesh, along with other backward states like Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and the North-Eastern states, were on the ministry's priority list, Mr. Ramesh told reporters here on Sunday.
The minister said M.P. would receive Rs.7,500 crore-out of the ministry's total outlay of about Rs.99,000 crore-under various schemes along with a special allocation of Rs.30 crore for the states eight Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts under the Integrated Action Plan (IAP).
Expressing concern over rising incidence of corruption in centrally sponsored schemes, especially the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), Mr. Ramesh said he had asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to conduct audits of fund allocations to the ministry, especially those to the MNREGS.
However, he said the central government could only do so much due to the the country's federal structure and it was the duty of the state governments concerned to act on the issues brought to their notice by the ministry.
Mr. Ramesh also recommended social audits of various schemes at the panchayat level to ensure transparency and weed out corruption.
He also congratulated state congress president Kantilal Bhuria on completing one year at the helm.
AICC general secretary and Nagpur MP Vilas Muttemwar also addressed party workers.
