Friday, December 16 2005 11:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today mooted a 'specific financing window' for the ambitious Rs 1,74,000 crore Bharat Nirman Programme aimed at giving new deal to rural India and bridging divides to balance growth.

"We are proposing a specific financing window for Bharat Nirman through NABARD for funding selected components" even as most of the resources would come from the Government's development outlays, he told the CII-organised conference on Bharat Nirman.

To bridge the rural-urban divide, Singh said he has in mind efforts like e-chaupal, Sagar Hatt, Shakti effort with Self Help Groups where corporate world is connected with the growth potential in rural India.

The conference, which marks the formal launch of the four-year development initiative, is aimed at building six lakh houses, add 10 million hectares of irrigation capacity, connect 66,802 hamlets with all weather roads, electrify the remaining 1,00,000 villages, providing safe drinking water in 55,000 villages and rural telephony in the remaining 55,000 villages.

Though the model of delivery would vary between components, the Prime Minister proposed to involve panchayats and the private sector as partners in this gigantic task.

"The Planning Commission is working on ways to enhance the management of rural infrastructure programmes by Panchayats," he said adding state governments and local bodies were critical to effective programme delivery.

State governments are key implementing agencies and panchayats need to activate the demand side without which service delivery would not be effective, he said.