Roads to respite

It might have been a road less travelled, but not any longer. It’s now going to be easier to construct all-weather roads to connect remote habitations...

It might have been a road less travelled, but not any longer. It’s now going to be easier to construct all-weather roads to connect remote habitations in hill states bordering international borders, particularly in the North East, under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

Waking up to the need of connecting far-flung and inaccessible areas in states like Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim by roads, given the much superior infrastructure already visible on the Chinese side, the Government has amended the existing guidelines. It has now increased the path distance used to club together habitations to make population clusters in blocks bordering international boundaries from 1.5 km to 10 km.

What this means is that from now on if a minimum of 250 people are residing in habitations in a path distance of 10 kilometers in blocks bordering international borders in hill states, they will be eligible to get a road under the PMGSY.

Story continues below this ad

The amendment, notified recently by the Rural Development Ministry, applies to Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashimr, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand. However, the trigger came from the North East, with a case being made for lack of road connectivity in interior and remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The recent Chinese claims on Arunachal Pradesh territory coupled with a realisation of India’s virtually non-existing road network in border areas of this state are factors learnt to have expedited this change.

“We argued that in interior areas of states like Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim it was not easy to locate a minimum 250 persons in a path distance of 1.5 km. This meant that many small habitations could never be connected through roads under this scheme,” said a senior official from the Ministry of Development of North East Region (DoNER). “But with the path distance now being increased by almost seven times, the minimum population criteria will be met in many areas, where people still travel for days to reach a connecting road,” the official added.

As many as 11 blocks or talukas in Arunachal Pradesh are located close to the international border with China, another five blocks on the international border with Myanmar and four blocks on the international border with Bhutan. The state has roughly 1,863-km-long international borders, of which around 1,126 km are with China. Sikkim, too, has 17 blocks bordering China, Nepal and Bhutan, and has a 220-km-long international border with China.

Since December 2000, when the PMGSY was launched, only 519 roads connecting 632 habitations have been built in Arunachal Pradesh. Similarly, only 398 roads connecting 298 habitations have been constructed in Sikkim. In Mizoram, only 91 roads connecting 106 habitations have been constructed so far, while Nagaland and Meghalaya have had 237 and 337 roads constructed till now. Meghalaya, meanwhile, has got 337 roads constructed under the scheme.

Donald Trump may replace H-1B lottery with wage-based selection process

World2 hr ago

Days after hiking the fees for new H-1B applications to $100,000, the Donald Trump administration has proposed to overhaul the visa process for high-skilled non-immigrant workers. The Trump administration has suggested a wage-based selection process for the H-1B programme, instead of the current lottery system.

View all shorts

Live Blog