UPA-II brings back focus on social sector

As indicated by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the UPA government has already initiated process to make higher allocation in social sector. The Union ministry of rural development has already written to state governments to send fresh proposals for allocation to be made in the NREGS and Backward Region Grant Fund for their states.

The states have been asked to submit their proposals within 15 days. According to Dilip Ghosh, special secretary, Panchayat Raj department of West Bengal, the Centre has indicated that the demand for grants for those projects should be hiked at least by 50 per cent.

It should be mentioned here that the NREGS, or the 100 days work is one of the major initiatives by the previous UPA government which is now considered to have played a crucial role in helping the Congress win the election.

The government is spending a huge amount in trying to augment earnings of the rural poor by offering them 100 days job in their areas against a minimum wage. The NREGS has been designed as an open-ended demand-based proramme where as on March, 2009 a sum of Rs 36214 crore (Rs 362.14 billion) have been made available for the country. For West Bengal, the amount is Rs 1277 crore (Rs 12.77 billion).

The accumulated amount remained unspent as none of the states could generate 100 days work for the poor. While some of the states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tamilnadu could achieve 60-70 days work the national average remained at around 50 days for the last year.

The UPA government is keen to give it a further push with higher allocation and incentives to the states to implement the scheme.

The BRGF is designed to target the most backward districts and help them surmount the obstacles in implementing NREGA and similar poverty alleviation programmes. There are 250 districts in the country which have been brought under the scheme and last year an amount of Rs 6624 crore (Rs 66.24 billion) has been allocated to these districts.

Eleven districts of West Bengal got a total of Rs 240 crore (Rs 2.4 billion) under the BRGF scheme.

But in most of the states the BRGF did not become an integral part of the district level plan. Dilip Ghosh admits that the District Planning Committee is not functional in the true sense in most of the areas.

Thus, BRGF remained a stand alone project without meeting the desired target of the plan. Now, the UPA government is trying to inject fresh life in it with more budgetary support.