Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Status of special category states under AIBP

Press Information Bereau, 17th December, 2008

RAJYA SABHA

North Eastern States, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir are classfied as special category states under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP). In addition, undivided Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi districts of Orissa are also treated at par with special category states under AIBP. The Government of India has made provisions in the AIBP guidelines amended in December 2006 in order to give a boost to irrigation development in the drought prone area of the country. In accordance with the existing guidelines, irrigation projects benefiting drought prone area are eligible for receiving 90% grant of the project cost which is at par with the special category states. Further, in normal cases, a new project could be included in AIBP only on completion of an ongoing project of the state under AIBP i.e. on one to one basis. However, the project benefiting drought prone area could be considered for inclusion in AIBP in relaxation to one to one criteria. This information was given by the Minister of State for Water Resources, Shri Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav in response to a question by Shri Ramdas Agarwal in the Rajya Sabha today. SK/BS

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