Bharat Nirman still a work in progress

Allocation towards the rural road scheme fell from the 2013-14 Budget Estimates of Rs 15,690 cr to Rs 8,685.52 cr in the revised estimates

After about two terms of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Bharat Nirman, its flagship rural infrastructure development programme, remains work in progress. In his 2014-15 interim Budget speech on Monday, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said since the UPA government came to power, 39,144 km of rural roads were constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

Allocation towards the rural road scheme, overseen by the Ministry of Rural Development, fell from the 2013-14 Budget Estimates of Rs 15,690 crore to Rs 8,685.52 crore in the revised estimates. For 2014-15, the Plan allocation towards this stands at Rs 4,529 crore, 47.8 per cent lower than the revised estimates for 2013-14.

Indira Awas Yojana, the rural housing programme under Bharat Nirman, saw the 2013-14 revised estimate fall to Rs 11,865.60 crore from the Budget Estimates of Rs 13,665.60 crore, a drop of 13.1 per cent. For 2014-15, the allocation was only Rs 21 crore, owing to restructuring of the scheme.

SCHEMES LOSING TRACTION

• Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana: Budget expenditure has grown only by around 10 per cent from Rs 7,884 crore in FY12-13 to Rs 8,685 crore in FY13-14. Budget allocation is only Rs 4,529 crore for FY14-15
   
• Indira Awas Yojana: This rural housing programme has seen Plan expenditure in Budget 2013-14 come down from Rs 13,665 crore to Rs 11,865 crore (revised estimates), a drop of 13.1 per cent
  

 

The subsidy for Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, the rural electrification programme, has come down drastically to Rs 2,868 crore in FY13-14, as against Budget Estimate of Rs 4,041 crore
 

The revised estimate for the National Rural Drinking Water Programme in Budget 2013-14 has come down to Rs 8,730 crore as against Budget Estimate of Rs 9,900 crore. The actual expenditure for Budget 2012-13 was Rs 10,489 crore
 

Rural telephony programme has seen rural teledensity grow from 15.11 per cent in 2009 to 32.99 per cent in 2011. The target is to reach rural teledensity of 40 per cent by end-2014

Overall, the Budget outlay for the Ministry of Rural Development rose only 2.5 per cent to Rs 82,202 crore from Rs 80,194 crore in 2013-14. Since 2010-11, the Budget outlay for the ministry has been Rs 76,000-80,000 crore.

Under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), subsidy for rural electrification has seen a steep fall - from the 2013-14 Budget Estimates of Rs 4,041.30 crore to Rs 2,868 crore in the revised estimates. The 2014-15 interim Budget allocated Rs 4,542 crore towards this.

Under RGGVY, the Ministry of Power sanctioned 819 projects to electrify 122,802 villages and provide free electricity connections to 38.8 million rural below-poverty-line (BPL) households. As on December 31, the work in 1,07,999 villages had been completed, while 21.5 million BPL households had been provided free connections.

For 2013-14, the revised estimate for the National Rural Drinking Water Programme fell to Rs 8,730 crore from the Budget Estimates of Rs 9,900 crore. For 2014-15, allocation towards this programme fell to Rs 108 crore due to restructuring of the scheme.

Under Bharat Nirman, rural tele-density increased from 15.11 per cent in 2009 to 32.99 per cent in 2011. The programme had aimed to record tele-density of 40 per cent by end of 2014, along with broadband coverage across 250,000 village panchayats. However, by the end of 2012, only 110,000 villages had broadband coverage. Experts said the effect of Bharat Nirman on rural infrastructure had been uneven. "The progress across rural road projects is visible, but this cannot be said of all the programmes under Bharat Nirman," says Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of infrastructure consultancy firm Feedback Ventures.

Arnab Chakraborty, who works for a non-governmental organisation in rural West Bengal, says most projects have been supply-ridden, rather than demand-driven. "The local rural community needs to take ownership of the projects, rather than being driven by the Centre and state governments," he adds.

Also, absorption of funds by states remains a challenge.