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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Job scheme budget-cut plan sparks alarm -Basant Kumar Mohanty

Job scheme budget-cut plan sparks alarm -Basant Kumar Mohanty

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published Published on Nov 28, 2014   modified Modified on Nov 28, 2014
-The Telegraph

The finance ministry has decided to shave Rs 3,000 crore, or about nine per cent, off the rural job guarantee scheme's budget allocation, government sources told The Telegraph.

The move comes at a time the NDA government has been trying to assuage the fears of the Opposition and social activists that it plans to dilute the programme, introduced by the UPA government.

This year's budget allocation for the programme was Rs 34,000 crore, up from Rs 33,000 crore last year when the actual spending on the programme was about Rs 37,500 crore. The scheme, however, has been beset by charges of corruption, delayed wage payment and projects of little worth that fail to create durable assets.

Officials said the budget-cut decision came despite the Union rural development ministry seeking an additional Rs 4,000 crore for the demand-driven scheme, which guarantees up to 100 days' paid work a year to every rural household.

Reports of the move appeared to deepen social activists' fears about the government's intentions about the programme.

"Keeping in view last year's expenditure and inflation, the government should have allocated about Rs 42,000 crore this year. But it allocated Rs 34,000 crore, and is now cutting (nearly) 10 per cent. This is nothing but killing the scheme," activist Nikhil Dey said.

CPI Rajya Sabha member D. Raja told this newspaper that the reduced allocation would mean that many needy families would be denied work under the programme.

"When there is less funds than the demand, the authorities would simply reject the demand," he said.

Sources said that although the budgets for most rural development schemes were cut last year, the job scheme was spared. Nearly five crore rural households - 40 per cent of them from the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes -get work under the programme every year.

A recent rural development ministry circular, which said the scheme would be prioritised in the 2,500 poorest blocks in the country, had already alarmed some Opposition politicians and activists.

They feared this was an excuse to dilute the scheme in the remaining 4,000 blocks - a charge the government has denied.

A second proposal - under the finance ministry's consideration - to change the labour-material ratio in the scheme's projects from the current 60:40 to 51:49 too has sparked "dilution" charges.

Raja had today moved a calling-attention motion in the upper House on the circular and the labour-material proposal (before the budget-cut decision became known).

He told the House that authorities in Karnataka's Belgaum district had misinterpreted the circular about focusing the scheme on 2,500 blocks and stopped new projects under the scheme.

"The workers have been refused jobs in Belgaum. The government must clarify what will happen to the remaining 4,000 blocks," Raja said.

He said the Bengal, Jharkhand, Tripura and Odisha Assemblies had passed resolutions against any move to undermine the scheme. He challenged a claim by the previous rural development minister.

"(Nitin) Gadkari said the labour-material ratio should change and that he had the support of all MPs. That is not correct - there is no consensus on that issue," Raja said.

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Satish Mishra said the scheme had helped check distress migration. He advocated raising the 100-day cap.

Janata Dal United leader K.C. Tyagi said the programme had helped check the Maoist threat, limiting its spread from 135 districts in 2005-06 to 68 now.

Former rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the move to change the labour-material ratio would convert the programme into a "contractor guarantee scheme". He denied that the scheme had failed to create durable assets.

Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav, however, said the scheme had hit the agriculture sector since farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab could no longer find farm labourers.

Rural development minister Birender Singh, however, told the House there was no move to limit the implementation of the scheme to only 2,500 blocks. These backward blocks would receive special focus but the scheme would be implemented uniformly across all regions, he said.

Singh did not provide any clarification on issue of the labour-material ratio.


The Telegraph, 27 November, 2014, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141128/jsp/nation/story_19098007.jsp#.VHfiDns_-BE


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