Status of Implementation of the Components of Bharat Nirman Relating to the Ministry of Rural Development

for Ministry of Rural Development | Date - 27-11-2007


Bharat Nirman which has been conceived as a time bound business plan by the Government for development of rural infrastructure is to be implemented over  a period of 4 years i.e. 2005-06 to 2008-09 with the total estimated investment of Rs.1,74,000 crore. Bharat Nirman comprises of six components i.e. Irrigation, Rural Roads, Rural Housing, Rural Drinking Water Supply, Rural Electrification and Telephone Connectivity. Three components  namely,  Rural Roads, Rural Housing and Rural Water Supply are being implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development with the estimated investment of Rs.85,000 crore.   These components have well defined targets and the progress is closely monitored accordingly. 

Rural Roads

Under Rural Roads component of Bharat Nirman, it is proposed to connect all habitations with population of 1000 persons or more in the plain areas and all habitations with population of 500 persons or more in the hill States, tribal and the desert areas with an all-weather road by 2009. During the period 2005-09, it is targeted to construct 146185 km. of rural roads connecting 66802 habitations and upgrade 194130 km. of existing rural roads.  So far upto September, 2007, construction of 48215 km. of rural roads was completed providing connectivity to 16444 habitations.  In addition, 60934 km. of existing rural roads have been upgraded. Projects for connecting 16968 habitations are in progress.  So far, projects costing Rs.59482 crore have been sanctioned and an amount of Rs.24711 crore has been spent under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana upto September, 2007.

To achieve the time bound targets of Bharat Nirman, all efforts have been made for provision of adequate funds under the scheme.  While the total expenditure for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was  Rs.6607.83 crore for the period 2000-04 (four years), it  stepped up to Rs.3077.45 crore during 2004-05, Rs.4091.66 during 2005-06 and Rs.7304.27 crore during 2006-07. During the current year (2007-08), the allocation has been enhanced to Rs.11,000 crore & Rs.6104.07 crore has already been released upto October, 2007.  Assistance from the World Bank and the Asian Development bank (ADB) has been taken to augment the resources for the scheme.  About Rs.9000 crore would be made available being assistance from World Bank and ADB.  For ensuring adequate funding, a special window has been created under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) of National Bank for Agricultural Rural Development (NABARD) for financing rural road projects under Bharat Nirman.  About Rs.16500 crore would be mobilized from the special window of NABARD.

“Rural Roads” being a State subject, projects under the programme are executed by State/UT Governments through their own agencies i.e. SRRDA (State Rural Roads Development Agency) for monitoring, financial management and coordination at the State Level and Programme Implementation Units (PIUs) for programme implementation at the district level. Central agencies have also been engaged for execution of projects under the programme in Bihar and Tripura.

All efforts are being made by the Government to ensure achievements of targets under Bharat Nirman (rural roads components) within the announced time frame i.e. by 2009.  The State Governments have been advised to enhance their institutional and contracting capacity for accelerating the pace of implementation of projects under the scheme.  The Ministry of Rural Development has also taken adequate steps to ensure quality and transparency in execution of projects under the programme.  The 3-tier quality control mechanism as prescribed in the PMGSY programme guidelines has been strengthened.

Standard Bidding Document (SBD) has been prescribed to facilitate open tender and award of works under PMGSY.  Necessary amendments have been made in the Standard Bidding Document to facilitate augmentation of contracting capacity in States. A web-based on-line monitoring system (web address – www.omms.nic.in and www.pmgsyonline.nic.in has been developed to facilitate timely monitoring of works under PMGSY.  Monitoring modules include connectivity status, Physical and Financial progress, Account and Quality monitoring etc. The entire database has been placed in the Citizen’s domain for ensuring transparency in programme implementation.

Citizen information boards are displayed in local language at prominent locations in the benefited habitations indicating the volume of materials used in each layer of the pavement.   In order to enhance transparency and accountability in the programme implementation, all State Governments have been recently advised to arrange joint inspection of on-going as well as completed works under PMGSY with  MPs, MLAs and functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions. As per the arrangements made, the Superintending Engineer concerned of the zone/region will request the MP and the Zilla Pramukh representing that zone/region once in six months to select any PMGSY project(s) for joint inspection. The schedule of joint inspection will be fixed as per the convenience of MP/Zilla Pramukh. The Executive Engineer incharge of a division will request MLA/Chairperson of the Intermediate Panchayat concerned once in three months for joint inspection of any PMGSY project(s) as per their choice and according to their convenience. Similarly, the Assistant Engineer in charge of the sub-division will request the concerned Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat once in two months to select any PMGSY project(s) for joint inspection as per his convenience.

Rural Housing

Under Bharat Nirman, 60 lakh houses are envisaged to be built over the period of four years i.e. from 2005-06 to 2008-09.  During the period of 2005-08 (upto Sept., 2007) the reports available reveal that 36.81 lakh houses have already been constructed.  During the first two years of Bharat Nirman, 30.50 lakh houses were constructed against the target of 29.74 lakh houses.   However, for 2007-08 the target of construction of 21.27 lakhs houses has been fixed in view of the enhanced central allocation of Rs.4032.70 crores for the year.  An amount of Rs.1993.84 crore as central share has since been released in this year and as per the information received from State Govts., 6.31 lakh houses have been constructed upto September, 2007.

To ensure transparency in the process of selection of beneficiaries, the States/UTs have been advised to prepare permanent IAY waitlists for each Gram Sabha to display it in ascending order based on the score of the BPL households as worked out through BPL Census 2002.  The guidelines have also been issued to the States/UTs to paint the permanent IAY waitlist on the wall of the Village Panchayat, keep its printed copies with every panchayat and also post this list on the websites of the districts.  This exercise is to be completed in a time bound manner.  Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Gujarat, Punjab, Nagaland, have prepared the waitlist.  The remaining States/UTs are near to the completion of this process.  In order to ensure strict monitoring, the system of online reporting of the progress of the implementation of the programme by the DRDAs has been introduced.   

                         

Rural Drinking Water Supply

During the Bharat Nirman period, 55,067 uncovered habitations, about 3.31 lakh slipped-back habitations (reassessed) were to be covered and 2.17 lakh quality-affected habitations were to be addressed. Tackling Arsenic and Fluoride contamination have been given priority.  There have been impressive achievements during the first two years of Bharat Nirman.  In 2005-06, against the target of 56,270 habitations to be covered, 97,215 habitations have been covered. Similarly, in 2006-07, against the target to cover 73,120 habitations, 1,07,350 habitations have been covered. In addition, 31,135 quality-habitations have been addressed with projects during 2006-07 to tackle water quality problems. 

            As on 1.4.2007, the number of habitations remaining to be tackled are, 29,534 un-covered habitations, 1,74,782 slipped-back habitations and 1,66,693 quality-affected habitations.  These remaining habitations are proposed to be covered/ addressed during last 2 years of the Bharat Nirman period.  Keeping in view the progress in last two years, during 2007-08, 1.55 lakh habitations are planned to be covered.  During the first six months of 2007-08 it is reported that 2,982 un-covered, 23,645 slipped-back and 3,283 quality-affected habitations have been covered. In addition, projects to tackle water quality problems in 9,210 quality-affected habitations have been approved for implementation.

            Under Bharat Nirman, financial allocation to rural drinking water has been increased substantially. During the period 2000-2004, annual average allocation was Rs.2198 crore for rural drinking water supply. However, under Bharat Nirman, in 2005-06, allocation for rural drinking water was raised to Rs.4060 crore, which was further enhanced to Rs.4,560 crore in 2006-07. In 2007-08, the allocation for rural drinking water supply has been further raised to Rs.6,500 crore, out of which Rs.2,991 crore has been spent.

            To empower the village community for having access to safe drinking water, National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance Programme has been launched in 2005-06, under which 5 persons in each village Panchayat are to be trained for testing their own drinking water sources by using simple test kits provided under the programme. For this purpose 100% financial assistance is provided by the Government of India. To tackle water quality problems, revised Sub-Mission Programme on Water Quality was launched in 2006-07 for providing focused attention and Government of India provides project-wise funds.  Online reporting system has been introduced to strengthen monitoring mechanism and transparency whereby State Governments have been urged to report the physical and financial progress online on monthly basis and update the habitation wise data on yearly basis.

Besides, providing safe drinking water in the rural habitations, the Government is also committed to enhance the sanitation facilities in these areas.  As per 2001 Census, 21.8% rural habitations had sanitation facilities, which have now gone up to 48.51%.  Government has planned to achieve the objective of Total Sanitation Coverage by the year 2012.  During 2005-06 and 2006-07, more than 195.39 lakh toilets for individual households have been constructed, besides, constructing 2.20 lakh school toilets.  During the current year i.e. 2007-08 more than 51.17 lakh toilets for individual households have already been constructed.  An incentive approach of Nirmal Gram Puraskar has been launched from 2005.  40 PRIs. were given award in 2005, which went upto 770 PRI’s in 2006 and to about 5000 in 2007.  This programme has got major boost in the last two years.  The achievements of the country are appreciated by various international agencies.

           

SMK/ST/JA
(Release ID :33286)

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