Bhubaneswar: As many as 8,300 villages in Odisha have no road connectivity, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Minister Rabi Narayan Naik told the Assembly Tuesday.
In a written reply to a question by BJP legislator Tankadhar Tripathy, Naik said out of 59,971 villages in Odisha, road connectivity has been provided to 51,671 villages under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and other state-sponsored schemes in a phased manner.
“Road connectivity has not been provided to 8,300 villages as those habitations are not eligible to be covered under the schemes,” the Minister said.
However, the Cabinet has recently approved the PMGSYIV scheme, and a survey to identify unconnected villages is going on in different states, he said.
The Minister said the exact data on the number of villages and hamlets which don’t have all-weather roads can be provided after the survey. According to data provided by Naik, Koraput district topped the list of unconnected habitations with 1,374, followed by Rayagada (1,099) and Nabarangpur (641).
