No road connectivity in 8,300 villages in Odisha: Minister in Assembly

In all, 8,300 villages in Odisha have no road connectivity, a minister told the Assembly on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question by BJP legislator Tankadhar Tripathy, the minister for panchayati raj and drinking water, Rabi Narayan Naik, said out of 59,971 villages in the state, road connectivity has been provided to 51,671 villages under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and other state-sponsored schemes in a phased manner.

Naik said road connectivity has not been provided to 8,300 villages as those habitations are not eligible to be covered under the schemes.

However, the cabinet has recently approved the PMGSY-IV scheme, and a survey to identify unconnected villages is going on in different states, he said.

The minister said the exact data on the number of villages and hamlets which don’t have all-weather roads can be provided after the survey.

According to data provided by Naik, Koraput district topped the list of unconnected habitations with 1,374 followed by Rayagada (1099) and Nabarangpur (641).

With PTI Inputs