GUWAHATI, May 22 – The State Government has submitted a proposal to the Centre proposing creation of four District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) in the four newly-formed districts with the objective of expediting the development process in these areas. Three of the four districts selected for the purpose are Chirang, Baska, and Udalguri falling under the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), while the fourth one is the Kamrup (Metropolitan) district. The development blocks to be included in the new DRDAs are Sidli, Chirang and Barbazar (Chirang district), Baska, Nagrijuli and Goreswar (Baska district) and Khairabari, Majbat, Udalguri, Bhargaon and Routa Chariali (Udalguri district) and Chandrapur and Dimoria (Kamrup-Metropolitan district), an official release said.
Meanwhile, the State Government has released an amount of Rs 23.34 crore, received as grant from the 11th Finance Commission, to the panchayats for implementing various development projects. The projects are on primary education, health care, drinking water, streetlight, crematorium, drainage, lavatory, etc.
The free rice distribution scheme (Anapurna) to the destitute senior citizens has again been launched in the State. For this, the State Government has released an amount of Rs 2.53 crore to the Rural Development Department to provide 10 kg free rice to the targeted group of 26,640 senior citizens.
The managing committee of the Kokrajhar DRDA has been reconstituted in view of the transfer of the Panchayat and Rural Development Department to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The new committee has the BTC CEO as chairman, BTC chief secretary as managing director and the DRDA project director as member secretary.