Talking to newsmen in Patna on the second day of his Bihar tour on Tuesday he said the Centre was ready to give more funds to the state if it so demanded in an appropriate manner. He also said that the Centre was seriously considering the suggestions put forth by Bihar for hiking the allocation under the Indira Awas Yojana for the area affected by floods in the state.

He held an extensive discussions with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on increasing the allocation under IAY for flood-affected areas, besides drinking water plan and the caste census on the basis of the socio-economic situation. The Union minister said under the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the Centre would seriously consider giving Rs 60,000 per unit of IAY in flood-hit areas.

Ramesh said after the caste census on the basis of socio-economic condition, a new BPL list would be prepared and admitted that the one prepared earlier had several shortcomings and had caused injustice to many poor people in Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha.

The Union minister said that earlier, mukhiyas and other panchayat functionaries were more interested in purchasing SUVs instead of using MNREGA funds for development works. He said that he got this information from none else but the chief minister Nitish Kumar himself and added that now this trend has decreased. He said Bihar would have to go a long way in achieving MNREGA targets as compared to some other states. Bihar had demanded Rs 3,000 crore for MNREGA scheme during the current financial year 2011-12.

He said that henceforth central agencies would not be involved in construction of roads and that the state would be fully free to do so on its own. This would stop the blame game between the Centre and the state over the quality of works being carried out under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

The Centre, according to him, would construct 6,500-km rural road under PMGSY at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore during 2011-12. The Maoist-affected states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh would be thrust areas for the central government where rural roads would be made on war footing. Even villages inhabited by 250 persons would be covered under PMGSY.

Jairam said that now the quality of MNREGA and PMGSY works would improve as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has been entrusted with the task of carrying out their audit.

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