The Government has approved the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF for 272 districts of 27 States, including 35 districts of Uttar Pradesh, to redress regional imbalances in development. These 35 districts of Uttar Pradesh are covered under the district components of the BRGF to help coverage and add value to other programs which are explicitly designed to meet rural employment and infrastructural needs but require supplementation to address the critical gaps.  It endeavors at catalyzing development in backward areas by a) providing infrastructure b) promoting good governance and agrarian reforms c) converging through supplementary infrastructure and capacity building. According to the goals and aims of the BRGF, funds are being provided for these 35 identified districts of Uttar Pradesh for supplementing and converging existing developmental inflows. This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Planning, Shri Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

The list of these districts is enclosed at Annexure-I.

The Minister said that In addition, a special package for implementing Drought Mitigation Strategies in 7 districts of Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh is being provided under the State component of the BRGF since 2009-10. These Districts are 1) Banda 2) Chitrakoot, 3) Hamirpur, 4) Jalaun, 5) Jhansi, 6) Lalitpur and 7) Mahoba.

For this component, the allocation and release figures for last three (3) completed financial years is placed at Annexure-II.

ANNEXURE-I

Backward Region Grant Fund- District Component

ANNEXURE-II

Bundelkhand package was sanctioned during 2009-10 for drought mitigation in the Bundelkhand region. Region comprises of seven districts of Uttar Pradesh (Banda, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur and Mohoba).

The details of funds allocated to the State of Uttar Pradesh under the package during last three years is given as under:

(Rs. in crore)

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NCJ/NN