Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s six flagship programmes are languishing because of massive underutilisation of funds. As per the data of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), only Rs 7,850.72 crore was spent out of Rs 36,194.39 crore released till date on six flagship programmes including Smart City Mission (SCM), Urban livelihood Mission (UlM), Prime Minister Awas Yojna (PMAY-Urban), Swachchh Bharat Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana).
In percentage terms, the States have spent only 21 per cent of the allotment made for these ambitious schemes. The worst hit is Smart City project where only 1.83 per cent funds have been used till date. In other words, only Rs 182.62 crore has been utilised out of the released amount of Rs 9,943.22 crore. As on March this year, 99 cities have been selected for Smart City mission.
Expressing concern over underutilisation of Central funds released by the MoHUA, a Parliamentary Standing Committee revealed there are 2,948 projects worth Rs 1,38,730 crore in various stages of implementation. As many as 189 projects worth Rs 2,237 crore have been completed, and implementation is underway for 495 projects with a cost of Rs 18,616 crore. Tenders have been floated for 277 projects with a cost of Rs 15,885 crore, while 1,987 projects worth Rs 1,01,992 crore are at detailed projects report stage. The project cost of each Smart City proposal will vary depending upon the level of ambition, model and capacity to execute and repay.
The committee has asked the Ministry to “get its act together and identify problematic areas” to expedite use of funds on war footing including the brittle financial health of most of the municipal bodies in undertaking Centre's flagship schemes.
In the case of projects related to AMRUT, a huge share of Rs 12,447.19 crore has been allocated to scheme meant to provide for water supply, sewerage and drainage facilities to selected 500 cities. Interestingly, only Rs 2,480.43 crore was used which is 27.74 per cent out of Rs 12,447.19 crore.
Under Swachchh Bharat Mission ,a total fund of Rs 5,847.92 crore was released. Of these, 38.01 per cent (Rs 2,223.22 crore) has been used under various projects.
In case of PMAY-Urban, the States have spent Rs 2,080.52 crore which is only 20.78 per cent of the funds released. PMAY was launched in June 2015. As against an assessment of 120 lakh houses, to be made available by 2022, the actual houses sanctioned is as low as 39.26 lakh as on February 9, 2018 out of which only 25.04 lakh houses are either completed or are under construction.
The Modi Government envisages building affordable pucca houses with water facility, sanitation and electricity supply round-the-clock. The scheme has recently been expanded its scope to cater to the housing needs of the mid-income group, besides the economically weaker sections (EWS) and low-income group (lIG).
Under the HRIDAY, so far, 63 projects amounting to Rs 421.47 crore for the12 HRIDAY cities have been approved. Of these, Rs 241.26 crore has been released. The scheme being implemented in 12 identified cities namely, Ajmer, Amaravati, Amritsar, Badami, Dwarka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi, Velenkanni and Warangal is to be completed by November 2018. The percentage release of funds to Badami is 20 per cent, Mathura is 34 per cent, Dwarka is 34 per cent, Puri is 36 per cent, Gaya is 37 per cent and Velenkanni is 42 per cent only.
As far as UlM concerned, an allocation of Rs 299.00 crore was made for the Mission and Rs 293.62 crore was utilised in 2016-17. Out of Rs 349.00 crore in 2017-18, 95.81 per cent was utilised till 31 December, 2017. In 2018-19, against a demand of Rs 850.00 crore, Rs 310 crore is granted.
“The committee is unhappy about the actual scenario with respect to the flagship programmes of the Government and the trend of Central funds not being utilised. They are apprehensive that, at this pace, the realisation of almost all the above well meaning missions will remain a distant dream,” the report said.
The committee further noted that it is seen that in 2018-19, against a proposal of Rs 86,099.97 crore, only Rs 41,765.13 was granted, i.e. 48.50 per cent whereas it was 43.73 per cent in 2017-18. “The committee also failed to understand how the Ministry would be able to achieve the targets with less than 50 per cent of the allocation sought by them for the same. They also feel that, may be, the Ministry has not made realistic projections or proper planning,” the report said.