Rural funds: Jairam Ramesh bats for States

Sunday, February 26, 2012: The Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh ,who was in Kerala on a three-day visit, today said that there is a need of fundamental shift.
He called for a change in architecture of rural development programmes.
He said that the rural development schemes were focused more on states that were backward and did not reflect the needs of states like Kerala which has high literacy and effective grassroots organisations.
”My ministry was trying to bring about greater flexibility in rural schemes in states like Kerala, Punjab and Goa which were relatively more advanced in rural development and that my serious suggestion is that by 2017, 50 percent of all rural funds must be given to state governments,” he added.