Kalam's idea to bridge rural-urban divide has few takers

When he was the president of India, he made it a point to mention it in almost every speech he delivered.

APJ Abdul Kalam underscored the importance of the Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) as a strategy to bridge the rural-urban divide and achieve balanced socio-economic development.

After years of his advocacy of the programme and three years after a pilot project started, Kalam's brainchild is still awaiting a nationwide launch.

With no proper fund allocation and lack of assessment, the rural development ministry continues to be clueless about how the pilot can be replicated in other parts of the country.

The PURA scheme was announced by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his Independence Day speech in 2003 based on the concept promoted by Kalam, who was then the president.

The rural development ministry, which is the nodal agency, in consultation with the Planning Commission, took up the scheme in seven clusters on a pilot basis for three years (2004-05 to 2006-07).

Officials said from 2004-05 to 2006-07, the ministry released Rs 20.5 crore and an expenditure of Rs 14.26 crore (69.5 per cent) was reported. This means each of the seven clusters has received less than Rs three crore (till December 2006-07).

This is when the steering committee on PURA under the chairmanship of the ministry secretary decided that each cluster would get Rs 4-5 crore over three years. In September 2006, the committee of secretaries recommended implementation of PURA as a regular scheme covering the rural areas in all districts during the 11th Plan period.

Conceding that if implemented properly, PURA could be a great concept to develop hitherto undeveloped areas, officials agreed the programme was not given due importance.

"We have been so busy with NREGA that we have hardly had any time to look into this programme. We have to collect the details of what happened till now and see how the scheme can be replicated throughout the country. We will convene a meeting soon to make an assessment and plan to take the programme on a larger scale from the next financial year (2008-09)," said a senior official of the ministry.

For 2008-09, PURA has been allocated Rs 27 crore, Rs 18 crore more the Rs nine crore it got in 2007-08. Officials hope the increased allocation will lead to the broadening of the programme in the next fiscal.

At present, PURA is restricted to seven clusters "" Gohpur in Assam, Rayadurg in Andhra Pradesh, Motipur in Bihar, Basmath in Maharashtra, Kujanga in Orissa, Shahpura in Rajasthan and Bharthana in Uttar Pradesh.

The scheme aims to plug the infrastructure gaps in identified rural clusters comprising 10-15 villages around towns with a population of one lakh plus by providing transportation (roads), power, electronic services (telecom, IT), educational institutions, markets, drinking water and an upgrade of existing facilities.

While these facilities are expected to be created by the implementing agencies by converging resources of ongoing central and state programmes, the gaps that cannot be funded under any existing scheme (or in case of insufficient funds) are to be funded through PURA.