A report in various newspapers on APR 11, 2012 quoting the Rural Development Minister, Mr. Jairam Ramesh stated that the PM’s rural road scheme the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yogna (PMGSY) is not a permanent solution. “Building roads in rural areas,” he said “is the job of State Governments and PMGSY was not a long-term solution to the problem of lack of roads. If the Central Government focused on construction of rural roads and their repairs and maintenance, then it will have no money to spend on creating other infrastructure.” This was stated at a seminar on “Engendering Physical Infrastructure via PMGSY” at the University of Mumbai campus. The minister was delivering the keynote address.
Various scheme, he said, were devised at the national level and there was no scope of variation to fit local needs. One such scheme the PMGSY was conceptualised 10 years ago, the actual implementation started only six years ago. Under the yojana (plan) all villages with 500 people or more will be connected by all-weather roads, i.e. roads usable throughout the year. Although it has been a resounding success in many places, it has not been able to address the problems of connectivity in most tribal areas as well as the desert regions of Rajasthan.
"This,” pointed the minister, “has affect service delivery, where it is most essential." He added that some states like Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and recently Maharashtra have taken the initiative to connect smaller habitations left out of the PMGSY. This would indeed lead to prosperity of these enclaves. Construction of rural roads is the states’ primary responsibility, he pointed out. However, as this did not happen, especially in states like West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh, the centre had to introduce PMGSY. “Now,” he said, “State Governments are asking for funds for repairs and maintenance of PMGSY roads, and at the same time they raise a cry about federal structure.” This obviously was with reference to the States that have opposed the proposed counter-terrorism centre.
India is a country with great diversity and all nationally conceived programmes, which are subject to guidelines, suffer from inflexibility, he said. So, what was the strategy? 50% of the rural development funds will be given to the State Governments by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan. This will lead to spending as per the States' own priorities. "The states can utilize these (50 per cent) funds to implement schemes as per their requirements, subject to broad guidelines, while the rest of the funds would be spent as per national guidelines prescribed for each such programme," Ramesh said.
PMGSY is for the villages which have a population of 500 or more. The minister said that states such as Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra had launched similar schemes to connect habitations which have less population. This indeed was a welcome step.
As part of innovations in the 12th Five Year Plan, the centre plans to introduce flexibility in implementing its flagship rural development programmes all over the country. Under this, the centre plans to transfer 50 per cent of funds earmarked for rural development programmes to the states. He said that though PMGSY was scheduled to be completed 2007, till date only 60 per cent of the work has been completed. The rest of the work is expected to be completed only by 2017.
[See also my previous blogpost on the same subject]
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