Capart loses Jairam and status

Minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh on Friday stepped down as the chairman of the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (Capart). He announced a parallel body called the Rural Development Foundation.

Making the announcements at Capart's executive council meeting on Friday, Ramesh said the foundation would be an autonomous body outside the influence of the government. Several Capart members had stayed away from Friday's meeting, protesting lack of reforms in it and demanding its closure. Ramesh had called for restructuring the organisation last month after a large number of corruption cases were detected. He had set up a search committee under Planning Commission member Mihir Shah to de-bureaucratise the top posts in Capart and suggest ways to reconstruct it.

Shah said the Commission would not allocate any funds for Capart unless it was reconstructed. The present budget was Rs 100 crore and if it undertook reforms, it could have got Rs 1,000 crore in the next five year plan. It has barely spent Rs 30 crore.

Welcoming the announcement of the foundation, he said, “While I have no hope of Capart being reformed, a window has opened to try something new in the form of the foundation. It could be on the lines of the Public Health Foundation. It will be free to raise funds.”

“A foundation was what we have all been asking for. The government has no option but to continue Capart. So, the only alternative is to start a foundation, which is better than Capart,” said Ved Arya, member of the executive council.