Indian Gov't Says Rural 'New Deal' Largely on Track
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Sep. 21, 2006: The government reviews the progress of Indias Bharat Nirman programme, which aims to upgrade Indias rural infrastructure. While the years targets for rural telephony, water supply, housing and new roads have been met, there was a shortfall in electricity and irrigation coverage
Reviewing progress on one of the governments most ambitious development programmes, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced in New Delhi recently that the Bharat Nirman programme to improve Indias dismal rural infrastructure has met its targets for 2006. Four components of the rural infrastructure programme -- telephony, water supply, housing and new roads -- have even exceeded their targets. The targets for rural electrification were also largely achieved, though there was a shortfall in irrigation coverage. Launched in 2005, Bharat Nirman seeks to cover all Indian villages with electricity, all-weather roads, potable water and telephones by 2009, at a cost of around Rs 1.74 trillion. In addition, 60 lakh new houses will be constructed and 1 crore hectares brought under irrigation. Taking stock of the progress made so far, Singh said that 18,708 km of rural roads had been constructed, against a target of 15,492 km. Also, 30,251 villages out of 66,822 have been covered under rural telephony so far in 2006. In the area of rural housing, against a target of 1.5 million houses for 2005-06, 1.54 million have already been constructed. As regards rural water supply, under the category of lapsed coverage habitations, against a target of 34,373 habitations, 70,416 were covered. The target for habitations not covered is 11,879, against which 11,526 have so far been covered. Under rural electrification, against a target of 10,000 villages to be electrified, 9,819 villages were connected in 2005-06. However, the next two years will be crucial for the Bharat Nirman programme, as the target for electricity coverage has been hiked to 40,000 villages per year. The prime minister said that notwithstanding its successes in these four areas, the government intended to see universal coverage where every village with a population of over 1,000 would have all-weather roads, water supply, telephone connections and electricity. The government also plans to build 6 million houses to address the problem of rural homelessness, and extend irrigation facilities to an additional 10 million hectares. A new system of franchisees for distribution has also been set up under the programme; the franchisees will be self-help groups and entrepreneurs. However, with regard to irrigation, the basic responsibility lies with the state governments. So far not all states have sent in their reports; from among those that have, 0.9 million hectares capacity had been created against a target of 1.9 million hectares for 2005-06. On the negative side of the programmes assessment, seven states have an over 90% backlog in the area of rural roads -- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. There are also six states with an over 90% backlog in the area of rural electrification -- Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. At the review, the prime minister directed the Planning Commission of India to organise a separate meeting with the chief ministers of these states, during the ensuing national development council meet, to request them to act urgently in these areas so that all targets may be achieved on schedule. As it seeks to take metalled roads to rural areas, the government has proposed creating a separate window under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund to source Rs 16,500 crore for the programme. The new window, along with a total of Rs 48,000 crore, including a cess and an Externally Aided Project (EAP), will help bridge the funding gap. The proposal is expected to be approved by the Union Cabinet shortly. Bharat Nirman, along with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, National Rural Health Mission and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, is aimed at giving a new deal to rural India under the United Progressive Alliance governments Common Minimum Programme. Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India; September 20, 2006 |
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