Assam budget proposes Rs 30,000 cr rural mission

Assam government on Tuesday proposed to roll out a major scheme for rural development envisaging an investment of Rs 30,000 crore over the next five years to transform each village of the state.

While presenting the budget for 2016-17, Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma proposed to take up a "Mega Mission", called 'Chief Minister Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana (CMSGUY)' for five years till 2021-22.

"The main objective is to double the farmer income, in unison with the vision of Hon'ble Prime Minister. There will be one Mega-Mission and 9 'Navaratna' Sub-Missions," he said.

"The planned investment is about Rs 1.20 crore per revenue village. The total requirement for the 

Mission is Rs 30,000 crore over a period of five years," Sarma said.

Of the total investment, 10 per cent will be in the form of community resources such as land and mandays, while the remaining 90 per cent will be from the state resources.

"The state has never witnessed such a massive and mega investment in this kind of focused manner. Each village will get benefits such as tractor, cold-chain vehicle, milch cows, fish hatchery etc as community asset with collective ownership," the Minister said.

An all-weather road, high speed broadband connectivity and other logistics will also be provided from possible convergence from the existing sources like Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), Central Government programmes and bank linkages among others, he added.