Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh said additional budget provision will be made for setting up more Nirmal Grams in various states of the country in the new Central Budget for 2012-13. He said there are six lakh villages across the country, but only 25 thousand of them have so far been transformed into Nirmal Grams.

Ramesh was reviewing the performance and implementation status of different rural development schemes sanctioned by the Centre for development of the North-Eastern states, including Assam at a day-long programme in Guwahati on Sunday. The Union Minister announced that Centre will provide necessary funds to provide drinking water and sanitation facilities in all the Gram Panchayat areas of Assam within next five years.

He said one thousand villages with 500 populations living in Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), Adivasi-dominated and other backward areas of Assam will be connected by all weather roads very soon. The scheme will be implemented under a new loan assistance project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He also distributed awards to best performed Zila Parishads, Anchalik Parishads and Gram Panchayats of Assam at the function.