Centre flagship schemes draw Plan panel ire

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New Delhi, Sep 22: Centre’s Bharat Nirman and other flagship programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme has drawn flak from the Planning Commission, which says many of the programmes have “serious weaknesses at the operational level”. Any amount of monitoring by the Central government will not help the issue unless the state machinery puts its act together.

Planning Commission member in charge of health Syeda Hameed has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to consider changes in the Central government guidelines for proper implementation of the schemes.

“Adding conditions to disbursement is also not the answer. In fact, … Central government guidelines are more often a problem. Greater flexibility at the lower level may actually have a positive impact at least where the state governments are keen to deliver,” Hameed said in her report after the on-the-spot review of the programmes in Rajasthan.

She has also suggested convergence of the NREG and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and Indira Awas Yojana (IAW) for proper implementation of the schemes and help meet the targets set.

Reviewing the Bharat Nirman components, Hameed said there was “confusion” in the state regarding the targets to be met under the programme. Though the state has performed relatively well with regard to the flagship programme to be completed by 2009, evaluation of the implementation revealed the several ‘socio-economic and administrative fault lines and short-comings in the design and implementation’ of the various schemes. “Even as Bharat Nirman enters the fourth year, the truly marginalised remain voiceless observers waiting for the wave of Nirman to touch their lives,” Hameed said.

Regarding the slow implementation of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) in Rajasthan and the fact that it will miss the target of 2009, Hameed said the programme is project driven to cover un-electrified villages. She highlighted the Planning Commission’s view that the design of RGGVY should be based on household electrification and not village electrification. Until March 2008, the physical progress on electrification of below poverty line (BPL) households was only 36%. “Clearly the design of RGGVY is not consistent with its stated objectives,” she said.