Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told the Assam Government on Wednesday to speed up the implementation of various rural development schemes in the state. He also warned officials against corruption and said no one would be spared if found guilty.

“If rural development programmes are properly implemented, insurgency and ULFA will be obviously wiped out. But at the same time, the state Government must ensure that there’s no corruption while implementing the schemes,” Singh said during a teleconference from New Delhi.

The Union minister said he had already written to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to speed up implementation of different rural development schemes. He took particular exception to the slow pace of progress in the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC).

“If Tripura can do better, if Sikkim can remain at the top of the list of all states, then there is no question why Assam should lag behind in implementing TSC,” Singh said, adding “Assam was given a target of covering 18.94 lakh BPL households under TSC, but only 1.45 lakh families have been covered till date.”

Similarly, against a target of covering 8.51 lakh above poverty line families under this scheme, only 1.45 lakh have been covered. Worst is the coverage of schools. Only 1,836 schools have got toilets against a target of 26,043.

“Assam is definitely lagging much behind the expected level. We have a target for providing every household with sanitary latrines under Nirmal Bharat programme by 2012. But at the current rate of progress, Assam will have to provide 3.5 lakh BPL families with such latrines every year in the next five years,” the minister said.