1.5L villages connected to main roads: Govt 11 of 36 subdivisions of IMD record deficient rainfall

NEW DELHI: With about 1.5 lakh rural areas being connected to main roads, it seems the promises of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide allweather road connectivity is getting fulfilled.

According to the latest report, the government in its three years of governance has completed road construction work in 1,41,311 rural areas, while the work in 23,726 vil

lages is about to be completed very soon are close to ready. As per the statistics, 6,683 vil

lages in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir have been connected with the main road during the three years.

According to a senior official in the Ministry of Rural Development, roads measuring about 1.32 lakh kms have been constructed in rural areas to connect villages to the main road. The speed of road construction has also increased to 134 km/day from 96.31 km/ day in the year 2015-16, the official said.

According to the official, the government has set a target to provide road connectivity to other 1,78,184 rural areas out of which the road construction work for 1,64,913 villages has already been sanctioned, which would be completed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

According to the official, the major benefit of connecting the rural areas with the main roads is the promotion of trades based on agriculture and milk. “A survey is also being conducted to find out as how villagers got benefitted from the roads constructed in their areas that connected to main roads,” the official said. NEW DELHI: Eleven of the 36 meteorological subdivisions in the country have recorded deficient rainfall until now, with many of them falling in the east and northeast India, says the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Twenty-three meteorological subdivisions of the country have recorded normal rainfall, while two subdivisions--kerala and coastal Andhra Pradesh-saw excess rainfall, the IMD data said.

Of the seven meteorological subdivisions---arunachal Pradesh; Assam and Meghalaya; the subdivision comprising Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura; subhimalayan West Bengal and Sikkim; Gangetic West Bengal; Jharkhand and Bihar---falling in east and northeast, six have received deficient rainfall, it said.

In northwest India, the Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh subdivision, Saurashtra and Kutch subdivision of Central India, Rayalseema, North Interior Karnataka and Telangana subdivisions of South Peninsula have recorded deficient rainfall, it said.

While Kerala has seen excessive rainfall, the deficiency is as high as minus 41 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively in Telangana and Lakshadweep, the weather body said.

The IMD has 36 subdivisions divided under four divisions---the East and the Northeast, Northwest, Central India and South Peninsula.

With devastating rain in Kerala last week and a low pressure area over Central India, the monsoon deficiency has dipped to minus 7 per cent, it said.

From June 1 until today, Kerala has received 41 per cent more rainfall than the normal.

The Southwest monsoon period in the country is from June 1 to September 30. From September 15, the monsoon starts withdrawing from west Rajasthan, where it reaches last.

June and July have recorded 5 per cent and 6 per cent less rainfall, respectively, the IMD said.