The Union Budget 2016-2017 has made substantial allocation of funds for village infrastructure development that includes basic amenities such as village linking road, electricity, drinking water, sanitation, housing, gas connection to BPl families, telephone connectivity, digital literacy scheme and MGNREGS for employment to change the quality of living in village and to minimize gaps in availability of basic amenities.
The total allocation for rural sector is Rs 87, 765 crore and as per 14th Finance Commission recommendation Rs 2.87 lakh crore grant in aid will be available for rural and urban local bodies in an average of Rs 80 lakh per Panchayat. There will be Rastriya Grama Swarajya Abhiyan to strengthen the Panchyatiraj institutions with a budgetary allocation of Rs 655 crore. There are 6,234 Panchayats and more than 60 per cent of the BPl population of the State is in rural area.
The backward States such as Odisha with presence of left Wing Extremism (lWE), extremely backward districts, vulnerable tribal groups, scheduled area, BPl families and SC and ST population and rural areas, have additional benefits of provisions of special allocations of funds under the Budget.
This is expected to have positive impact on the backward States such as Odisha and especially over the marginalised sections if implemented properly. The implementation of all Central schemes fully depends on the State that includes its bureaucracy and Panchayatiraj institutions and above all the political will of the ruling party leaders. It is proposed to have a district level committee under the chairmanship of senior MP of lok Sabha to monitor and implement designated central sector sponsored schemes.
It has been observed that the rural infrastructure schemes of the Central Government have been poorly implemented in Odisha in comparison to other developed States and not covering the genuine target groups, especially the marginalised sections who are being excluded in accessing all the benefits due to inherent structural issues and continued socially discriminatory practices. The State has to follow the Central guideline while implementing the schemes with focus on the marginalised in rural villages. The slogan for transformation of village must be inclusive of all social groups in the village. The interior parts specially hilly and tribal areas of the State should be adequately covered as per the guidelines of the schemes.
There are important schemes such as Prime Minister Grama Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), MGNREGS, Deendayal Upadhyaya Grama Jyoti Yojana, Swachha Bharat Mission, drinking water and lPG connection for BPl families which are supported with major Central assistance and being implemented by the State with matching grants. These schemes are dedicated public investments primarily aimed to develop infrastructure in rural area and focus the poor and marginalised to bring change in quality of life towards a dignified living. As per Census 2011, about 84 per cent of people of the State live in rural areas. The people in rural villages belong to different social groups without homogeneousness. The marginalised sections are mostly located at the end part of the main village and social segregation has been very much prevalent with dominance of upper caste over the marginalised. Women are not being part of the decision making process in the village as well as the marginalised sections. Even many of the elected women representatives are being represented by their husbands in proxy role. There are villages where Dalits are not allowed to seat in Gram Sabha meetings with upper caste people on the same carpet.
The PMGSY aims to develop all weather access to unconnected habitations, hamlets, through all-weather roads, culverts and cross drainage structure. The allocation of PMGSY has been increased to Rs 19,000 crore. The habitations are not revenue village or Panchayats but hamlets. It has been identified that in most of the rural village the poor and marginalized section hamlets such as Dalit sahi/pada are inaccessible without proper linking road to the main road of the village. It is being complained that the road under PMGSY ends where the Dalit hamlet begins. The primary requirement for any linking road is land but most of the Dalit hamlets are not having linking road in revenue record. Usually it is the look after of the local revenue authority to identify linking road but unfortunately the local revenue authorities have not conducted survey and settlement of the revenue village specially the Dalit hamlets. The landless families are not given record of rights over the land they have been in possession since generations. Therefore to ensure linking road for Dalit hamlets, the State Government should ensure land for the landless and declare habitations as revenue hamlets in revenue records otherwise the PMGSY will never reach to the habitations of the marginalized sections.
The IAY is the most popular rural housing scheme for the rural poor and marginalised, SCs, STs and BPl, bonded labourers, FRA beneficiaries, women in distress, families affected by natural calamities and PWDs. Homestead land is the precondition for this housing scheme.
But the State Government has not ensured land for thousands of prospective beneficiaries. As a result, many rural poor of the marginalized sections are getting deprived of Central Government housing schemes. There are a lot more other schemes which are linked to housing such as electricity, sanitation and drinking water and land development under MGNREGS. There is also provision of loan from nationalized banks with subsidised interest rate for construction of house and other development work. The IAY as per guideline of the ministry include toilet, bathroom, soak pit, compost pit, smokeless Chula, biogas /lPG connection covered under other Central schemes. There is scope of convergence of a host of schemes to bring a holistic change in the life of the BPl families in rural areas. While generating employment for the poor, the MGNREGS can be used to develop rural basic infrastructure for both the community as well as for individual household and can be linked to provide additional incentive to the beneficiaries of different schemes such as IAY.
The Union Finance Minister has allocated Rs 8,500 crore to cover the target of 100 per cent village electrification by May 1, 2018 under Deendayal Upadhyaya Garama Jyoti Yojana. Electricity is required for improving quality of life as well as production of agriculture and small and cottage industries in village. Many of the interior parts and tribal areas of Odisha have not been covered under rural electrification. The hamlets of the marginalised sections need special attention for electricity connection within the scheme. Odisha is one of the States having maximum people used to open defecation. The Rs 9,000 crore Swachha Bharat Abhiyan will mostly cover the rural areas.
Drinking water source is one of the most essential infrastructure required for every household but a majority of the household of the marginalised remain without quality drinking water sources at their premises. The State Government should make all possible efforts to reach out to the interior parts inhabited by SCs and STs to ensure safe drinking water and discrimination free access. This year Budget has made provision of Rs 2,000 crore for lPG gas connection for BPl families in the name of women in rural areas. It will have wider impact over poor women in family. It will contribute to save time and control pollution leading to good health of women who are mostly engaged in food preparation for their families.
The State has to ensure land and matching contribution for the successful implementation of each scheme for the poor and marginalised. It should use SCSP and TSP fund as matching grant to the schemes for SCs and STs, but there has been notional allocation without proper implementation. The State Government has been using resources under Central sponsored schemes to make payment of the salaries and administrative expenses of the State Government employees but there has been very poor implementation of all Central sponsored schemes. While the State is facing paucity of funds, it is very much required to take advantage of all Central sponsored schemes for the rural poor in building basic amenities related infrastructure which will not only be helpful to the marginalised sections but also ensure inclusive development of the State.
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