Since ancient times Indian society consisted of self-sufficient villages. In those days the villagers did not have to leave the vicinity of their village for their daily needs or even for seeking justice from Courts. Each village produced its own food, clothing, had all the necessary tradesmen right in the village itself. The administration and the justice were looked after by the Village Panchayats. Over the centuries, India prior to its Independence was ruled by a number of Princes independently and/or under a central authority of an Emperor. These Rulers were mainly concerned with land revenue collection from rural population and exercising their authority over them for law and order rather than caring for rural upliftment through development. Hence the road development was never planned systematically at all India level. Even after Independence the development of roads except National Highways became the responsibility of the State Governments concerned and as such it formed part of the State Plans.

Owing to funds constraints the allocations for road development remained meagre compared to requirement and especially in case of village roads. Road Development has not received due importance and its logical share from the planners at all levels in comparison to some other specific development activities, which were given higher priority. In fact, the overall

allocation to the road sector at National level kept on going down from the first five-year plan to the subsequent five-year plans.

Construction of village roads was included under the Minimum Need Programme (MNP) for the first time in the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79). The MNP envisaged connection of villages with a population of 1500 and above with all weather roads. In hilly, tribal and coastal areas connection of a cluster of villages of similar population was envisaged. In subsequent plans after the larger villages were connected to a large extent, the focus was shifted to villages with population between 1000 to 1500 also. Outlays, though of not adequate size, were being made for this programme in each five-year plan and annual plans. The actual expenditure was more or less equal to the outlay in the Sixth Plan but fell short in the fifth, seventh and subsequent plans.

In latter years rural roads were also being constructed under several other schemes like the NREP, the RLEGP, JRY, IJRY, BMS, EAS and similar other schemes. Notable work has also been done under the RIDF scheme by the NABARD in recent years. Rural road development projects were also executed in some states with World Bank assistance. In some states, Market Committees, Sugar Cane Societies have carried out rural road construction. No doubt, sizeable road length was