|
THE NATION: PRIME MINISTER'S PROJECTS
Doubtful
Promises
Most of the rural development schemes announced by Vajpayee are merely
repackaged versions of populist programmes of past prime ministers
By Harinder Baweja
It has become a
fashionable convention. Come August 15 and January 26 and the prime minister
in power announces grand schemes that, it is claimed, will herald a new
dawn for the poor. This year too, advertisements were put out on Republic
Day: "Marching towards a proud and prosperous rural India ... celebrating
Republic Day, the NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee is committed
to meeting the basic needs of the people.'' The basic needs this time
were rural road connectivity, safe drinking water, food security and shelter
for all.
A prosperous rural India would be a noble venture
if the targets for rural development were indeed met. Or if the schemes
were not old wine in new bottles, having been packaged and repackaged
by successive prime ministers. Or even if the existing schemes were not
being duplicated to give them the prime ministerial tag.
The four schemes advertised by the Government
this year show the great degree of populism that is packaged into them.
They also mirror past schemes, some of which never took off. Says a senior
official: "Prime ministers would do well not to make these announcements.
It's usually their speech writers who get carried away."
A harsh but accurate assessment. If the programmes
had moved according to their own guidelines, every hamlet and village
in the country would have had clean drinking water by 1995. Similarly,
one of the guidelines on rural self-employment would not have begun with
the premise that "despite efforts made over the past few decades,
rural poverty in India continues to cause grave concern."
Since Indira Gandhi set the trend with her 20-point
programme in 1975, prime ministers have been anxious to launch their pet
schemes. H.D. Deve Gowda's Ganga Kalyan Yojana, for instance, was designed
with "Gowda the farmer" as the central motif. Launched in early
1997, it was to be targeted at "small and marginal farmers living
below the poverty line". The aim was to provide irrigation through
exploitation of groundwater (borewells and tube wells) to individuals
and groups in the target group. That the same objectives were already
being met through two other schemes-the Integrated Rural Development Programme
and the Million Wells Scheme-was not something that worried Gowda or his
team. Nor does it matter today that the Yojana-which never took off-has
now been merged into the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana.
Apart from merging, repackaging and renaming
schemes, it is also fashionable to announce Centrally financed projects
in sectors which are already covered. The four schemes advertised by the
NDA Government show that and much more.
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives