The development programmes for the poor in backward regions have been subject to ineffective implementation that leads to very limited impact in improving the lot of the targeted groups.
It is a fact that there is vertical and horizontal disparity in social and regional sphere. It is reported that the Central Government grants, MP lAD funds and State sponsored projects are not being spent in time. The most humanitarian concern is the delay in releasing of assistance to BPl families for construction of IAY and wage of job card holders under NREGS programme. While the poor States like Odisha are struggling for financial resources and many of the development schemes are getting affected due to shortage of funds, on the other side, whatever available in public is not being spent effectively on time.
The implementation of schemes is the primary responsibility of the bureaucracy while planning and monitoring mostly lies with the legislators and bureaucracy collectively. There are State and district level planning committee and structure of development administration but why this delay has not been reviewed in proper forums of the Government.
The SCs and STs of the State and the backward regions are the worst sufferer of this delay process as their development is very closely linked to the Government development interventions. Many of the schemes are directly targeted to the development of SCs and STs. Union Minister Tribal Affairs Juel Oram alleged that half of the Rs 421crore Central assistance as grants for different welfare programmes for STs has not been spent in the State during 2014-2015. A study by a private organization revealed that MPs of Odisha have not achieved 100 per cent of MPlAD fund spending. The study collected information through RTI data shows only 70 per cent of spending in 2009 to 2014. The MPs from tribal and backward areas have very poor performances in spending the fund. The SC and ST MPs are no exception in playing a proactive role for the community and the constituencies they belong.
There is also delay in execution of MlAlAD funds in the State as reported by CAG in 2014. lack of interest of MlAs, diversion of funds, no local participation and supervision of district Collector are the major reasons for improper spending of MlAlAD funds. The MlA lAD started with annual Rs 5 lakh in 1997-98 was augmented to Rs 1 crore in 2010-11. In 27 constituencies, the MlAs are not recommending any projects to the Collectors with priority list in the beginning of the financial year. A few MlAs have supported from their lAD fund for building religious centers in the name of community halls but neglected development programmes for the locals.
The Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation source said 15 Odisha MPs, including 13 from lok Sabha and two from Rajya Sabha, have not spent a single pie from their lAD funds for last one year.
The CAG audit notice that during 2011-2014 out of 600 bridges planned for construction under Biju Setu Yojana (BSY), only 12 of them are fully completed. It says non availability of land, delay in approval of tender and execution of tender are the major reasons. It is revealed that the BPl beneficiaries of development programmes such as IAY and NREGS have not received their installment on time which affects the development of the poor households in Dhenkanal districts of Odisha. The inordinate delay in releasing the funds to IAY beneficiaries in eight blocks of the district has affected the construction of house programme. Two years back the district administration of Kendrapada had issued show cause notice to 21 Gram Panchayats in the district for the reasons of non implementation of Central flagship poverty alleviation programmes. It is said that there has been lack of coordination among Panchayati Raj institutions and district level Government officials in charge of the implementation of the programmes. There are instances where the beneficiaries of IAY have been waiting for years together to get the work completed and the poor fellow make hundreds of visits to blocks to release the grant.
One of the major reasons of non implementation of development programmes is lack of effective coordination and monitoring among legislative and executive because almost all the planning and monitoring bodies are largely dominated by the elected representatives and the bureaucrats at different levels such as State, district and block. These monitoring bodies have routine engagements and never have serious review unless there is a complaint. Many of the statutory bodies such as Public Accounts Committee, State Planning Board, District Planning Committee, State Tribal Advisory Council and State Scheduled Caste Advisory Board and committees on SCSP and TSP are almost non effective in the State. The Governor has special power to monitor the development work of 5th Scheduled Areas in the State and 44 per cent of the States geographical area is 5th Scheduled Area with 24 per cent of the total population belonging to STs. There has been lack of regular departmental review by Minister and departmental committees on the performance of the respective department under the guidance of the Chief Minister and experts in the department on technical issues. In a recent meeting the Chief Minister has deputed four senior officials in State Secretariat to four districts, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Nabarangpur and Kandhamal for monitoring the development programmes as additional input to speed up the implementation process. The Chief Minister himself will take a review of the progress in every month. In the district and block level there are a number of monitoring committees which need to meet for periodic review to meet the target and for completion of the work. It has been observed that many of the works are unnecessarily delayed due to bureaucratic apathy at local level and communication gap among local Government officials and beneficiaries. A major chunk of the beneficiaries are illiterate and poor wage earners who routinely visit the local Government offices to get their genuine entitlements. There are a number of procedural hurdles being faced by the poor beneficiaries to fall in line with instruction of the Government officials without a proper complaint mechanism in favour of the beneficiaries. It is also observed that while discharging their duty in implementing developmental programmes, the Government officials are in continuous pressure by the ruling party workers and local vested interest groups by which they are not fully functional in discharging their duties effectively. The general trend is everybody wants their share from Government fund for the poor while releasing the grant to the poor beneficiaries. Nobody in the system is accountable for delay in implementation, under-spending and even non-spending.
In recent time the use of RTI by public has been playing a kind of monitoring role in the implementation process but only ensuring information is not enough unless the political will and public commitment is not there to carry forward the planning. The most essential services such as health, sanitation, drinking water, education, employment, and housing for the poor and anti-poverty programmes should get top priority by the Government in terms of availability of financial resources and timely implementation. The process of programme implementation should be decentralized to make involvement of Panchyati raj institutions, CSOs and educational institutions with proper training and institutional mechanism.
(The writer is a researcher and rights activist, who can be mailed at manasbbsr15@gmail.com, Mob -9437060797)