The year 2006 saw blossoming of various initiatives taken by the Rural Development Ministry during the past one and half years. The wage employment and self-employment programmes, rural connectivity, provision of houses to BPL families, making available safe drinking water to rural habitations, marketing facilities to products of rural artisans etc. witnessed great leaps during the year.
Wage Employment - NREGA
Path-breaking historical legislation, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was launched on 2nd February 2006 from Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, and the UPA Chairperson, Smt. Sonia Gandhi. In the first phase of implementation of Right to Employment Act, 200 most backward districts of the country have been covered. The results of the last ten months are highly encouraging. So far, more than 1.31 crore families have been provided with employment. More than 3.4 crore families have applied for registration, out of which more than 1.5 crore families have asked for jobs. As against the budgetary allocation of Rs.11,300 crore during 2006-07, a sum of Rs. 6254 crore has also been released to different States and Rs. 4200 crore have been utilised by the States, generating 44 crore mandays of the employment. Under NREGA, so far 520 lakh works have been taken up out of which 22 lakh works relating to water conservation measures have been taken up. On an average, more than Rs. 50 crore is being pumped into the rural economy through implementation of NREGA. The participation of weaker sections of the society, such as SC/STs and women has considerably gone up in this wage employment programme. With a view to ensure that the progamme is being implemented with transparency, accountability and fairness, strict management information arrangements have been put in position. District level
Vigilance and Monitoring Committee chaired by Members of Parliament and comprising of all the elected representatives and concerned Government officials have been given statutory backing under Section 11 of the Act. Work-specific vigilance and monitoring committees have also been constituted to ensure
people’s participation. For ensuring awareness and training to stakeholders, a massive programme has been undertaken for providing training. Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) have been given principal role in planning, implementation and monitoring of the programmes.
Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar YojanaIn the remaining 385 districts of the country, the on-going wage-employment programme, namely, Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY), is under implementation in which as against the budgetary allocation of Rs.2911 crore, Rs.1883 crore have been released to different States incurring an expenditure of Rs.1732 crore, generating mandays of 19 crore. Under this programme, 7 lakh works have been taken up and 3 lakh works have been completed. Under this scheme, creation of community assets with focus on water conservation measures and income-generating activities, under 22.5% component of SC/ST has been taken up on large-scale.
Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar YojanaFor poverty alleviation, apart from the wage-employment programmes, the Ministry is implementing an ambitious self-employment programmes as Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) in which so far, 23 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been formed, bringing 2.3 crore families under SHG net. In the current financial year, 1.13 lakh SHGs have been formed and 46,000 groups have been provided with economic assistance. Taking into account the individual beneficiaries, more than 4.37 lakh families have been assisted during the current year. Against the budgetary allocation of Rs. 1100 crore, a sum of Rs.568 crore have been released to the States and Rs. 532 crore have been utilized.
Realising the widespread unemployment among educated rural youths, Ministry has taken up special projects for skill upgradation training to rural educated BPL youths so as to ensure their self-employment. Ministry proposes to intensify this activity in the coming year.
Marketing of rural Products
For ensuring sustainable marketing of the rural products and accordingly, the Ministry has planned to set-up “National Rural Products Marketing Agency” on National, State and District level with professionals manning the bodies. Permanent marketing infrastructure has already been built in 11 State capitals and underway at four places in Delhi i.e., Pragati Maidan, Dilli Haat Pitampura, Jasola and Rajiv Gandhi Handicrafts Bhawan. With a view to further empower the SHG members and to give it an organizational structure, the Ministry has planned to facilitiate formation of federation of SHGs at panchayats, block, district, State and National level. The Ministry is working on to have the presence of National SHG Federation in the early months of year 2007.
Bharat NirmanUnder the ambitious Bharat Nirman Programme of the UPA Government, out of six components, Ministry of Rural Development is concerned with implementation of three components, namely, rural roads, rural housing and rural drinking water supply, in which over a period of four years, Rs.85,000 crore are proposed to be spent. During the year 2006, Ministry has been able to achieve remarkably well in all the three components of Bharat Nirman.
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
Under the rural roads programme called the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), 1,94,740 km. long roads have been approved for construction at an amount of Rs.36,994 crore, which shall provide connectivity to 60,000 habitations.
The UPA Government has implemented this programme with top-most impetus, which is evident from the fact that during the last two years, road length of 81,120 km. roads have been approved at an estimate cost of Rs.20,332 crore.
The Government has fixed targets for providing all-weather connectivity to 40,436 habitations having a population of more than 1000 (26,336 habitations having a population of more than 500 in case of hilly and tribal areas). Thus total 66,802 villages shall be provided with all-weather connectivity by the year 2009 with an estimated outlay of Rs.48,000 crore. 1,46,185 km. new roads and 1,94,130 km. of road upgradation is involved in this plan. The Government is attaching highest priority to ensure proper quality of construction. Accordingly, three-tier quality monitoring system has been developed. For ensuring people’s participation, citizens information board are being installed at all work sites. In order to ensure transparency in the management of the programme, online management, monitoring, accounting system (OMMAS) and technical audit systems have been placed in position.
Till November 2006, one lakh km. road length have been built, which has provided connectivity to 30,000 habitations. So far, a sum of Rs.17,056 crore has been spent in the programme. For the period from 2000 to 2004, annual expenditure was about Rs.2500 crore per year whereas the expenditure for
2005-06 is Rs.4200 crore and during the current year, Rs.9060 crore are proposed to be spent. During the next two years, Rs.35,000 crore are planned to be spent.
Indira Awas Yojana (IAY)
Under rural housing component of Bharat Nirman, 60 lakh houses are proposed to be built in four years. 15 lakh houses are built under IAY every year. The budgetary allocation for IAY during the current year is Rs.2920 crore against which Rs.1455 crore have been spent and 4,90,000 houses have been built. For
ensuring transparency in selection of beneficiaries under IAY, based on BPL Census 2002, a system of permanent IAY waitlist has been introduced. Permanent waitlist prepared on this basis are being painted at conspicuous places, panchayat buildings, school buildings. The lists are also being printed in the form of booklet and are being posted on the website of the District.
Rural Water Supply & Sanitation
Under rural drinking water supply component of Bharat Nirman, so far, 1826 Not Covered (NC) habitations, 14,666 Partially Covered (PC) habitations, 1,18,535 slipped back habitations and 5151 quality affected habitations have been provided with safe drinking water. Till year 2009, 3052 NC habitations, 38,894 PC habitations and 2,52,060 slipped back habitations and 1,47,576 quality affected habitations shall be covered. For ensuring sufficient and safe drinking water, Swajaldhara and National Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Programme have also been started. Under Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), during the last two years, remarkable progress has been achieved. During the last financial years, 97 lakh toilets were built. 569 districts of the country have been covered under TSC so far. As per 2001 Census, 22% rural habitations had sanitation facilities which have now gone up to 40 %. Government has planned to achieve the objective of Total Sanitation Coverage by the year 2012, all schools would be provided with drinking water and sanitation facilities by 31st March 2007.
For ensuring greater participation of PRIs and NGOS, Nirmal Gram Puraskar has been introduced. In the year 2005, 40 gram panchayats and in 2006, 770 gram panchayats were awarded. For the year 2007, proposals have
been received from 9703 gram panchayats, 120 blocks and 2 districts for Nirmal Gram Puraskar.
Other RD ProgrammesUnder Hariyali programme of the Ministry, the efforts have resulted in bringing 87 lakh hectares of wasteland under green cover.
Computerization of Land RecordsFor ensuring farmer friendly availability of the records of rights, computerization of land records is under implementation as Centrally Sponsored Programme in all the States of the country. The States of Tamil Nadu, Goa, Karnataka and Haryana have already achieved 100% computerization of land records and other States are about to complete the task.
Bio-Diesel MissionFor achieving the energy security requirement of the country, jatropoha plantation for promotion of bio-diesel has been taken up on pilot basis by the Ministry to be taken up in seven States. 18 crore jatropha plantations have been grown to be distributed among line departments, agriculture, and forest and also to the farmers. A National Bio-Diesel Mission is in the process of being launched. The Ministry has prepared a plan for taking up jatropha plantation in about 5 lakh hectares of land during the coming year.
RehabilitationIn pursuance of the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the UPA Government, the Ministry has formulated a draft National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy - 2006 after widespread consultations with all the
stakeholders. This policy aims at providing rich compensation package to the project-affected families so as to take care of the difficulties faced by them.
Old Age PensionFor ensuring effective social security net to the aged poor people of the country, Government has enhanced the share of monthly pension under National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS) from Rs.75 per month to Rs.200 per month, from the current year. States have been requested to provide equal matching share and to distribute the payment through banks/post offices. This effort of the Government will ensure effective security to the elderly persons of the country.
AD:MLD:LK:YER(27.12.06)