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THE NATION: PRIME MINISTER'S PROJECTS
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BUDGET:
2000-01: Rs 100 crore
OBJECTIVE: Free food for aged destitute |
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The
ad says "10 kg foodgrain per month are provided free of cost to destitute
persons above 65 years of age, spending Rs 610 crore per year to cover
82 lakh senior citizens".
THE FACTS:
Annapurna has been culled out of the
National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), one of the components of the
National Social Assistance Programme which came into effect during P.V.
Narasimha Rao's tenure on August 15, 1995.
Under NOAPS, 68 lakh destitutes aged above 65
get a pension of Rs 75 per month provided "they have little or no
regular means of subsistence ... or (get) financial support from family
members or other sources".
Annapurna applies not to 82 lakh senior citizens
as the ad claims, or even to 68 lakh, the figure listed in the Annapurna
guidelines. It is applicable only to 20 per cent of the NOAPS beneficiaries
as stated by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in his budget speech for
the year 1999-2000. Until the revised guidelines, only 13.76 lakh people
are covered.
Similarly, the sum of Rs 610 crore is exaggerated.
The Ministry of Rural Development's annual report for 1999-2000 says "an
allocation of Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for the scheme for the year
2000-01".
CONCLUSION: Revised version of pension scheme
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Pradhan
Mantri
Gramodaya Yojana
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BUDGET:
2000-01: Rs 1,710 crore
OBJECTIVE: Housing for all; 2 million units a year |
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The Government announced
a national housing and habitat policy in 1998-the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya
Yojana (Gramin Awaas)-aimed at providing "housing for all" and
facilitating the construction of two million additional housing units
annually. Of these, 13 lakh were to be constructed in rural areas and
seven lakh in urban sectors.
THE FACTS:
As against the target of 2.1 million
(1998-2001) for urban areas, only 7,18,616 units have been constructed.
The Government, in other words, has taken three years to do what it had
promised to do in one.
In the rural areas, 1.8 million homes were to
be constructed through HUDCO finances but till now only 5,79,418 houses
have been completed.
There was little need for another housing scheme,
for a similar one called the Indira Awaas Yojana already exists since
1985. The government has made little effort to conceal the similarity.
The guidelines for the new scheme say that it will be "based on the
pattern of the Indira Awaas Yojana".
Though a popular scheme, the figures for 1998-99
show that as opposed to the target of 9.87 lakh houses, the achievement
percentage stood at 35.93.
CONCLUSION: Another copy, and just as tardy
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Drinking
Water Supply
for Rural Areas
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BUDGET:
2000-01: Rs 500 crore
OBJECTIVE: Drinking water to all villages by 2004 |
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In a speech on August
15, 2000, Vajpayee promised that every village would have clean drinking
water in four years.
THE FACTS:
Like Rajiv Gandhi, this Government
too is lending its name to water schemes. Water supply was introduced
in the social welfare sector in 1954. Since then, schemes have been introduced,
withdrawn and reintroduced. To accelerate the pace of covering villages,
the Central government introduced the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme
(ARWSP) in 1972. It had barely been in operation for two years when it
was withdrawn after the introduction of another scheme called the Minimum
Needs Programme (MNP). But, to quote from the government's own records,
"the ARWSP was reintroduced in 1997-78 when the progress of supply
of safe drinking water to identified problem villages under MNP was not
found to be focusing enough on problem villages".
To ensure coverage of all rural habitations
and to preserve the quality of water, the National Drinking Water Mission
(NDWM) was launched in 1986. In 1991, the same was corronated as the Rajiv
Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission.
Under the ARWSP, all villages and hamlets should
have had safe drinking water by the end of the Eighth Plan period which
ended in 1995. Six years later, in 2001, both the ARWSP and MNP are still
at work. As of March 2000, 26,121 villages had not been covered and 2,13,331
only partially covered (getting less than 10 litre per capita a day).
Yet another scheme for water made sense if it
helped accelerate the supply of water or if there was a shortage of funds
under the existing schemes. Out of an outlay of Rs 1,960 crore for 2000-2001
for ARWSP, only Rs 848.76 crore had been spent in the first nine months.
Similarly, for MNP, expenditure stood at Rs 751.82 crore as against an
outlay of Rs 2,015.63 crore.
CONCLUSION: Joins crowd of failed water schemes
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Pradhan
Mantri
Gram Sadak Yojana
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BUDGET:
2000-01: Rs 2,500 crore
OBJECTIVE: Connecting all villages with a population of 1,000
by 2003 and those with 500 by 2007. |
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Announced by Vajpayee
on August 15, 2000, the ambitious scheme aims at connecting all villages
with a population of 1,000 in the next three years and villages with a
population of 500 and above by the year 2007.
THE FACTS:
Funds are being raised through a cess on
diesel and Rs 2,500 crore was earmarked for the first year. It is difficult
to assess its progress since the scheme has only just been launched. But
an official says it will run into financial problems because at least
Rs 60,000 crore is needed.
CONCLUSION: May run into financial problems
Populism comes with major problems as these
schemes have shown. It is one thing to issue large ads in newspapers and
quite another to build roads or homes. Poverty alleviation, as a government
brochure acknowledges, is a grave issue.
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