he Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign began at Sundarnagar in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh today to create awareness among the common people about the central sponsored schemes being implemented in the state. The three-day campaign organized by the Press Information Bureau, Shimla was inaugurated by the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Mr Jai Ram Thakur by lighting the lamp.

He said that the central sponsored schemes like MNREGA, Total Sanitation Programme and Indira Awash Yojna are being implemented affectively by the State State Government in comparison with other states.

He said that under Sanitation Programme after Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh is coming up as the second state to be declared soon as a complete Nirmal Pradesh in the country. Referring to the larger participation of women in this programme, he said that there were only 500 Open Defecation Free Panchayat, ODF in 2007 which has gone up to 2743.

He said that the state government is doing excellent work in implementing MNREGA Scheme under which 1913 crores rupees has been spent during the last four years and 510 crore during the last fiscal year. He said that participation of women in development process has increased following the implementation of 50 per cent reservation of women in panchayati raj institutions in the state.

He also stressed on better coordination between the state and central governments in spreading the benefits of these progrmmes upto the grass root level. He lauded the efforts of PIB and other media units of Information and Broadcasting Ministry in disseminating the information about Bharat Nirman flagship programmes to the nook and corner of the state specially in the rural areas.

The Government has asked the states to identify development projects under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MGNREGA, to ensure work available for those labourers who are in distress due to impending drought situation in some parts of the country. The move comes in view of lower rainfall in some parts of the country and this may lead to an increased demand for employment under MGNREGA. 

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, the Minister of State for Rural Development, Pradeep Jain said that his Ministry has already written to the Chief Ministers of states to prepare a contingency plan for meeting increased demand for employment under the scheme. He said the states have been assured that in drought like conditions, the central government will be open to revision in the labour budget for the current financial year to meet the increased demand for employment. Mr. Jain said, the state governments have also been advised to prepare supplementary projects to meet increased demand.

The Reserve Bank today said banks were resilient enough to weather the pressure on farm loans caused by drought like situation because of deficient monsoon.

RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty told reporters in New Delhi that banks have sufficient rehabilitation measures to weather it out. He said the Indian banking system would be able to face the stress.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said the Government would converge the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Act and other schemes to meet the challenges of drought-like situation in several states and enhance imports of commodities in short-supply to control price rise.

He said the contingency plans were in place to help farmers replant alternate crops as well as supply drinking water and fodder.

Monsoon is the life-line of the agriculture sector as only 40 per cent of the cultivable area is irrigated. Rain has been 20 per cent lower during June-July, affecting kharif crops mainly coarse cereals and pulses.

Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are facing drought-like situation.

Last week, Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on drought had approved diesel subsidy of 50 per cent to farmers for saving standing crops, and a 2,000 crore rupee package for states affected by drought-like situation.

He said supply side constraints would be removed to achieve price stability and existing food stocks would be used to moderate prices. Chidambaram said that imports would be increased to deal with shortages. He said that his Ministry would work with the Reserve Bank of India to moderate inflation in medium term and take action to ease interest burden on consumers.
The Finance Minister said taxation in IT sector would be reviewed.

Stressing the need to focus on large projects as well as infrastructure projects, the Minister said an Investment-Tracking System for projects with an outlay of a thousand crore or more had been put in place. Proposals pending with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will be processed and decisions will be taken expeditiously.

The Government intends to raise the level of investment to 30 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and fine-tune policies and procedures to facilitate capital flows, Chidambaram added. He sought support of political parties for the passage of Bills tabled by his Ministry in the House and announced to work with manufacturers and exporters to boost growth. For this he said, the Government would implement appropriate measures, apart from seeking expert advice on fiscal consolidation.

Chidambaram said a roadmap to boost investments and economy by fine-tuning policies would be put in place soon. He said steps would be taken to attract more people to invest in mutual funds, insurance policies and others.
Expressing concern over the weak south west monsoon, the Finance Minister said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gauruntee Act (MGNREGA) and other schemes would be converged to meet the challenge of drought.