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.
Availability of safe drinking water has been a serious problem in Rajasthan. Under Bharat Nirman, until March 2008 only 31% of the 86,665 habitations have been covered under the safe drinking water scheme. The scheme in its present form does not support an integrated approach to secure safe drinking water in a sustained manner. Though the scheme has covered some habitations, quality of water remains an issue and ?slipping back is a high probability as there are no holistic solutions and very little incentive to the community to undertake maintenance activities,? Hameed said suggesting roping in the civil society and the private sector to improve effectiveness.
Rajasthan is confident of meeting the target under PMGSY as it has a work satisfaction rate of 93% against the national average of 83% in the road sector. But a unique problem facing the state is that under PMGSY, road connectivity is to be provided to habitations with population of more than 1,000 and of more than 500 in hill states, tribal and desert areas. Rajasthan has only 619 habitations with a population of 1,000 or more and 2,390 habitations with population between 500 and 999. While it has almost exhausted coverage under PMGSY, 2,995 habitations in general areas with population between 250-499, 591 tribal habitations and 881 habitations in desert areas remain unconnected. To address this issue, Hameed has suggested convergence of the PMGSY with the NREG and changes in the latter guidelines to facilitate use of NREG funds.
The NREG has been performing well in the state but some of the complaints made by the people were provision of employment to just two people in case of joint families is inadequate, social audits are seldom done, complaint registers are not maintained and online monitoring system is incomplete. Amenities like drinking water and cr?ches, provisions mandatory under NREG, are not available at work sites.
Over reliance on panchayats has hampered the scheme?s ability to create durable assets and productive employment. Hameed has suggested involvement of government agencies like PWD for asset creation and self-employment. These agencies should be given 4% of the administrative charges for hiring staff.
Rajasthan, an educationally backward state, has made good progress under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). Since 2001-02, total enrollment has increased 43.25% and enrollment of girls has increased 59.58%.
The gender gap has fallen from 25.32% in 1997-98 to 10.05% in 2007-08. ?On the whole good progress, especially the decline in drop out rates (60% in 2001-02 to 34.71% in 2007-08), but the states has a large population of out of school children,? Hameed pointed.