The minister was speaking after laying foundation stone for the proposed administrative building of Nagpur Zilla Parishad. Minister of State for Education, Anil Deshmukh, presided over the programme.

Gadkari said the State Government has plans to link all the villages by all weather roads in Nagpur district by March 2000. Sangli district of Western Maharashtra has achieved the distinction of being the first district to have all weather road communication network for rural areas. ``Nagpur would be added to it by March next year,'' he said.

The minister informed that in Nagpur district funds totalling Rs 6 crore would be allocated for road works under Employment Guarantee Scheme this year. The amount would be increased to Rs 7 crore next year.Speaking about the ambitious plan to provide permanent drinking water sources for villages facing acute problems during summer, he said the scheme would be launched soon in 203 villages of Nagpur district. Gadkari also spoke about the efforts to make the administration more transparent.

He said a programme to take administrative machinery at the doorstep of villagers has been a great success. A total of 1.65 lakh people from rural areas of Nagpur district were benefitted by the programme, he added. Another part of the programme is to annually update the revenue records and issue copies of the relevant record to individual farmer at his doorstep.

Anil Deshmukh, who in his capacity as Nagpur ZP President had made efforts to get the land released for ZP administrative building in 1992, expressed the hope that the construction work would be taken up and completed without further delay. Referring to the new system of electing ZP office bearers every year, he said it needs to be reviewed.

ZP PresidentPurshottam Dakhole, Vice President Charansingh Thakur and Social Welfare Committee Chairman Shankar Chahande also spoke. ZP CEO Dhanraj Khamatklar made introductory remarks and Nana Gawande conducted the proceedings. ZP Committee chiefs Ashatai Musale and Sandhyatai Girhe were also present.