Panel report on central schemes may be implemented next year

The panel, under the chairmanship of Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi, had suggested bringing down the number of central schemes from 147 to 59

The government plans to implement the much-talked-B K Chaturvedi panel report on revamping centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) from 2013-14.

According to the draft document for the 12th Five-Year Plan, the recommendations have been discussed with all ministries and states and widely welcomed.

The panel, constituted by the government under the chairmanship of Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi to revamp CSS, had suggested bringing down the number from 147 to 59 by either clubbing smaller programmes into larger ones or abolishing these.

All programmes, with an annual allocation of less than Rs 100 crore, would be either weeded off or clubbed with bigger programmes, thereby leading to substantial saving for the government. The finance ministry is of the view that the programme should not be just pruned arbitrarily and it should be done with proper financial implication.

Officials said for centrally-sponsored programmes under the ministry of health and family welfare, where the government spent Rs 18,000 crore in 2011-12, the Chaturvedi panel had suggested bringing down the number of CSS to just five from 11.

Major programmes, like the national mental health programme, national programme for prevention and control of diabetes, cancer control programmes and schemes for health care for the elderly, will all form part of the broad national programme on non-communicable disease.

In the department of rural development, the National Rural Livelihood Mission could subsume schemes like the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) and the programme for development of district rural development agencies called the DRDA Administration. The DRDA programme was meant to develop agencies and institutions that could effectively monitor the central government’s anti-poverty programmes.

In the ministry of environment and forests, programmes like Project Tiger could form part of a larger scheme called conservation of natural resources and environment protection. Project Elephant will become part of a bigger programme called the integrated development of wildlife.

Another big change can come in centrally-sponsored programmes run by the department of school education and literacy and in the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Social Justice and Empowerment.

In the school education department, a broader scheme for supporting educational development will encompass as many as six small schemes like the programme for adult education and skill development and programme for appointment of language teachers.

In the ministry of labour and employment, of the 13 centrally-sponsored programmes, barring the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, the remaining 12 will form part of a broader scheme for skill development.

Similarly, of the 13 CSS run by the ministry of social justice and empowerment, the panel has recommended bringing these down to five, with better targeting.