MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PANCHAYATI RAJ (SHRI MANI SHANKAR AIYAR)
(a): Identification of districts for coverage under Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF)
Programme was based on two sets of criteria, one adopted for coverage of districts under the
programme of Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY), National Food For Work Programme (NFFWP),
National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) in its first phase and the second, on
the basis of recommendations of the Inter Ministry Task Group (IMTG) which identified 170
districts as backward on the basis of 17 socio-economic variables. An explanatory note on
the criteria for selection of districts is at Annexure-I.
(b) & (c): 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh have been included in the BRGF programme on
the basis of the selection criteria.
(d) to (f): The Hon’ble Member Shri L. Rajgopal, had suggested that a prosperous district
could have backward habitations, therefore, Village Panchayat or Revenue Division instead of
the district may be taken as a unit which could help effective percolation of schemes into the
backward regions. A copy of the reply sent by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission to the
Hon’ble Member is at Annexure-II. While the district has been taken as the unit for the
selection of districts under the BRGF Programme, the Panchayats at the village level,
intermediate and district level are the planning and implementing authorities in the rural
areas under the programme. The programme Guidelines also prescribe that each State should
indicate the normative formula used for the allocation of funds under BRGF Programme to each
level of Panchayat and Urban Local Bodies.
Annexure-I
Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) Programme –Criteria for Selection of Districts.
The Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme covers 250 districts. The list of 250
districts includes all the 200 districts covered by the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Programme (NREGP) in its first phase and 170 districts identified as backward by the Inter-
Ministry Task Group (IMTG) on Redressing Growing Regional Imbalances.
The list of 200 districts covered by the NREGP includes all the 147 districts covered
by the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) and 150 districts covered by the National Food For
Work Programme (NFFWP). These districts were identified on the basis of an index of
backwardness comprising three parameters with equal weights to each, namely, value of output
per agricultural worker, agriculture wage rate and percentage of SC/ST population of the
districts.
The list of 147 RSVY districts included 115 backward districts and 32 districts
affected by left wing extremism, which were covered on the recommendation of the Ministry
of Home Affairs. Out of 115 districts, 20 districts were reserved for special category
States. It was decided that Goa, Pondicherry, Delhi and other Union Territories would not be
covered under the programme. State capitals, districts with an urban agglomeration of over
a million plus and districts, which had major cities of the States, were also excluded. The
remaining 95 districts were distributed among the non-special category States. The number
of districts per State, in case of non-special category States and Assam, was worked out on
the basis of incidence of poverty. The allocation of districts among special category
States, excluding Assam, was made on the basis of the total population as per 2001 census.
The list of backward districts of non-special category States and Assam was finalized
through an exercise taken up to rank the districts on an index of backwardness on the basis
of criteria mentioned above. The special category States (excluding Assam) were requested
to indicate their backward districts for coverage under the programme, as the data for these
criteria was not available.
The combined list of RSVY and NFFWP districts gave 195 districts. Five districts
were identified separately to assess the impact of the programme in certain specific background
and added to this list.
The Planning Commission set up the Inter-Ministry Task Group (IMTG) on Redressing
Growing Regional Imbalances, in August 2004. The IMTG identified 170 districts as backward
on the basis of 17 socio-economic variables.
Out of 170 IMTG districts, 120 districts were already covered in the list of 200 NREGP
districts. The remaining 50 districts, not covered in the list of 200 NREGP districts, were
added to the list, thus taking the total number to 250 for coverage under the BRGF.
Annexure- II
MONTEK SINGH AHLUWALIA
DEPUTY CHAIRMAN
PLANNING COMMISSION
INDIA
D.O.No.M-12053/19/VIP/2006-MLP/DCII/11/06/3621
September 7, 2006
Dear Shri Rajagopal,
Please refer to your letters of May 9 and May 26, 2006 to the Prime Minister, Minister
for Commerce & Industry and Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises requesting for
making the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) applicable to the backward villages of your
Parliamentary Constituency by taking each Revenue Division as a unit instead of considering
the whole district as one unit.
I have had the matter examined. The modalities of the BRGF have recently been approved
by the Government. The scheme is for bringing about focussed development of identified
backward districts. It may be mentioned that the Revenue Division was not considered as a
unit for implementation even in the RSVY, the precursor of the BRGF. I also regret that
Vijayawada district is not included in the 250 districts that would be covered under the
BRGF as it did not meet the criteria for identifying the districts to be covered under the
Fund.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
(Montek Singh Ahluwalia)
Shri L.Rajagopal,
Member of Parliament,
(Lok Sabha),
14, Lodhi Estate,
Opposite India International Centre,
New Delhi-110 003.
