Govt fails to meet key Budget targets

The government is yet to achieve a number of targets outlined in Budget 2006-07, which it was expected to in this fiscal.

The schemes include the flagship primary education programme, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, which has only partly achieved its targets.

As against the Budget target of creating 5 lakh classrooms and appointing 1.5 lakh teachers, so far, only 2 lakh classrooms have been built and 75,000 teachers appointed.

Nearly 19 per cent of schools in the country remain single-teacher schools. This is despite the finance ministry having allocated 40 per cent more money (Rs 10,041 crore for 2006-07) for the programme compared with Rs 7,156 crore provided last year.

The average pupil-teacher ratio in the country is 1:42. It is as bad as 1:83 in states like Bihar.

Another such partially fulfilled programmes include the one on rural electrification "" the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana "" under which an additional 40,000 villages were to be electrified in 2006-07.

However, only 17,160 villages were covered till early this year. Similarly, against the Budget target of 15,000 Mw additional power generation by March 31, 2007, only 5,093 Mw capacity had been added by December 2006.

The Budget had mentioned an amendment to the definition of captive consumption to allow companies with captive coal mines to sell surplus coal to steel, power and cement companies through firm supply contracts. However, no such amendment has been made. When asked, a Planning Commission official said no amendment was necessary and status quo would be maintained.

The Budget had also announced that at least three petroleum, chemicals and petro-chemicals investment regions would be developed to attract big-ticket investments in these sectors. No such region has come up so far.