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Pass law to check misuse of Rural Development Fund, Centre tells Punjab

  In a significant development, the Punjab Government is learnt to have been told by the Centre to pass a law to ensure the Rural Development Fund (RDF) was used only for developing rural infrastructure if the state wanted the stopped central grant to be released.
Alleging misuse of the grant, the Centre has refused to release the RDF to Punjab for the wheat season beginning April 1. The AAP-led state government will lose Rs 1,750 crore per annum as RDF if it fails to pass the law.
The state government, therefore, is learnt to be considering to bring in an ordinance to amend the Punjab Rural Development Act, 1987. With this, it will bind the use of the RDF only for creating infrastructure in rural areas and do away with the clause that allowed use of this fund to repay the loan taken by the Punjab Mandi Board during the previous Congress regime. The RDF grant amounting to Rs 4,700 crore was reportedly diverted for repaying the loan taken to fund the previous government’s flagship ‘Farm Loan Waiver Scheme’.
Top officials in the state government have told The Tribune that the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had not calculated the RDF to be given on wheat purchase (3 per cent) in its provisional cost-sheet. They said the issue was to be discussed at the next Cabinet meeting, scheduled later this week.
While Punjab gets Rs 1,000 crore as RDF on paddy purchase, the remaining Rs 750 crore is earned on the purchase of wheat. The grant is given to the state by the Food Corporation of India. For the past three years, the Centre has been accusing Punjab of misusing the funds.
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