Govt mulls monitoring mechanism for central schemes

Government plans to set up a committee presided over by a senior parliamentarian to monitor implementation of centrally sponsored schemes, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said today.
In a federal system, the central government can formulate a plan and sanction money for it, even though the implementation has to be taken up by the state government or the urban local body, the Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation said.
During Question Hour, Naidu said he would shortly come up with an arrangement to monitor centrally sponsored schemes.
Under the proposed arrangement, such schemes to the extent possible would be monitored by a committee presided over by the senior-most member of Parliament, he said.

Responding to a query on rehabilitation of slum dwellers, Naidu said the number of slums are rising on account of more people moving from villages to cities but not having place to live.
"Land and colonisation, being state subjects, it is therefore for the states/union territories to provide the land for housing projects for rehabilitation of slum dwellers," he noted.
According to the Minister, there are about 6.55 crore slum population and around 1.37 crore slum households.