INTRODUCTION
Pradhan Mantri Gram sadak yojna(PMGSY) is an ambitious project of Government of India.Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Gram sadak Yojna(PMGSY) on 25th Dec 2020.It was launched basically to connect unconnected habitations as part of a poverty reduction strategy by providing the all-weather road networks to the states. This scheme is mainly for Rural India to provide better connectivity and transportation.Government launched this scheme to connect the rural India socially and economically with rest of India. The Ministry of Rural Development along with state governments is responsible for the implementation of PMGSY.
Allocation of Fund for PMGSY:-
Till 2015 Central Government fully funded the project . In 2015 the 14th Finance Commission decided that prohject has to be funded by both Central Government and state with a share ratio of 60:40.
Salient Features of Pradhan Mantri Gram sadak Yojna:-
-Access to market to sell the grains and commodities by villagers.
-Access to Better Health care facilities especially for old aged person, pregnant ladies and children.
-State budgeted five years maintenance along with initial construction. Ministry for Rural development provided the provision of financial incentives for main works to the states.
-Improved employement oppurtunities by engaging people in design,& construction of roads and other related activities.
-Improved educational facility especialy for girl children by easy access to schools at nearby cities.
-More and better oppurtunities, employement, education, health and various other social welfare schemes for the rural habitants.
-Increase of both farm income and employement oppurtunities for people by increasing social and economical services.
-The Government functionaries like teachers ,health workers and agricultural extension workers can move to villages.After that it will be easy to offer better services to village people .
-Easy as well as fast connectivity of rural to urban area leading to social and economical development.
Objective of PMGSY:-
*The main objective of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak yojna is facilitating the rural areas with enhanced socio-economic environment through the construction of all weather condition road connectivity with nearby towns.
*Upgradation of existing roads in those districts where all the habitations have been provided all weather road connectivity.
*To promote education of children and health facilities in rural area by providing all weather road connectivity with nearby cities.
Progress made till March-23:-
Around 1.7Lakhs habitations with a population of above 500 in plains and above 250 in the hilly areas planned to be connected by well maintained roads. Government connected 82% (80% ie. 1.3Lakhs under PMGSY and 2% ie.14620 under state govt. schemes ) by Dec 2017,and 55% ie.97838 habitations by March 2014. Of the remaining 47,000, work on all is in progress and Government completed the connectivity in March 2019.Pending work included harsh terrain states of Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand as well as left-wing Naxalite-Moist extremism infested state of Chhattisgarh, some districts of Jharkhand and Malkangiri District of Odisha.The average speed of Road construction under PMGSY from 2004 to 2014 was 98.5 Km per day and from 2014 to 2017 it rose to 130Km per day.
Impact of this scheme:-
Major impact of this scheme with new roads and upgrades, is change in lifestyle of many villagers by changing their mind set. The effect includes movement of workers from remote villages out of agriculture in search of better jobs at nearby citie.This scheme has directly or indirectly improved the income and employement of villagers. Villagers are now able to send their kids to town for better education in better schools. Health facilities are available for pregnant women and old age people on time. People can go easily to hospitals in nearby cities for medical treatments.
OMMAS:-
In order to identify the targets and monitor progress in construction of all weather roads Government developed an Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System or OMMAS under Digital India Program.An individual may access the OMMAS by clicking below link:
e-Governance department of C-DAC Pune developed this system. C-DAC(The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) Pune is one of the biggest database in India.OMMAS is an application or mobile app that enables the user to interact with the PMGSY scheme on real time basis, including all information like e-payment,Progress monitoring, Target setting, core network,Proposals, Quality and other reports. The user may also give feedback regarding the progress in rural road construction and track the real time development.
Challenges faced by Pradhan Mantri Gram sadak Yojna:-
The major challenges faced by PMGSY are :-
1.Fund availability is the major challenge for this program. The share of allocation of fund between Central Govt and state Govt is not being allocated as defined earlier and this leads to delay in constructing the roads.
2.Because of inconsistent season at hilly area the construction of roads often undergoes a delay and incurs additional expenditures.
3. Due to lack of improper planning ,excess wastage of materials takes place. Consequently wastage of materials leads to exceeding budget.
4.Workers are not cheap and avalable workers often demand more wages and stop the road construction.
Conclusion:-
The Pradhan Mantri Gram sadak Yojna is a big step towards development of country. By connecting rural areas with nearby cities the lifestyle of villagers have also improved. PMGSY is an honest effort by Govt. of India to facilitate all the villages with education, health facilities, employement and ease of reaching nearby markets.Days are not far away when travelling from one place to another will take minimum time.