Funds for rural uplift unused

A large chunk of central funds earmarked for rural development is going abegging owing to states' inability to identify development activities to be undertaken by different tiers of the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs).

The 12th finance commission has recommended that Rs 20,000 crore be provided for panchayats for the next five years.

States were required to complete the task of "activity mapping" for PRIs by the end of the last financial year as per the recommendations of the series of seven round table conferences with them on panchayati raj. These consultations had resulted in a set of 150 recommendations which all the states had agreed to abide by.

Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has now fixed a target of three months for states to complete the task of identifying activities to be implemented by different tiers of the PRIs from among the functions devolved to the local bodies through the constitutional amendment on the panchayati raj.

According to the recommendations of the round table meets, the devolution of functions, functionaries and finances needs to be routed through a legislative framework or through executive orders of the state governments.

A meeting of state panchayati raj secretaries, convened here to review the progress of implementation of the 150 recommendations, has revealed that many states are lagging behind in setting up the district planning committees (DPCs) as well.

This will hinder the flow of funds to the local bodies. Besides, the development plans prepared by these bodies are to form the basis for the 11th Five-Year Plan programmes and allocations.

The states which have not yet begun the process of constituting DPCs include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Punjab, Chandigarh, Tripura and Pondicherry.

In many other states, these bodies have been set up only for a part of all the districts. In Uttar Pradesh, though the DPCs have been constituted in all the districts, they are not functional as yet.