Finding that states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are crying foul over "lack of funds and discrimination", Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh will come out with an elaborate set of data to show that how the Centre has flooded the states with money for rural schemes. But to drive home a bigger political point and not just publicise some dry data, Singh will make a booklet with a title aimed at rattling the rulers: 'Mulk ke Maalikon ke Naam Grameen Vikas Mantralay ka Hisaab Kitaab' (Rural Development Ministry's Accounts for the Rulers of the Land). |
It is learnt that Singh himself suggested this name and in the meeting last week, when his officers asked him how to translate this in English, Singh told them, "If you don't find a suitable translation, then just transliterate it in the roman alphabet." Clearly, Singh's intention is to add the political zing while saving the face for the government.
The UPA government has been trying to advertise its limited success in NREGA and other rural programmes on a regular basis. But it is UP Chief Minister Mayawati's administration which came out with a booklet recently, alleging how UP had been deprived of central funds to implement rural schemes. This irked Singh and the union minister decided to join the booklet war.
While Mayawati alleges that UP has been neglected for quite some time, Singh wants to squarely blame her predecessor Mulayam Singh Yadav for the initial lapses. "When we launched NREGA, Mulayam's people came up with mischievous advertisements saying that whoever enrolls his name, will be sent to Iran and Iraq.
We had to spend huge amounts of money to counter those campaigns and explain what NREGA is all about. Even then, many people didn't participate out of fear," said Singh.
The Ministry of Rural Development had got a total allocation of Rs 110403.62 crore in the last three budgets. From April 2007 up to mid-January 2008, Rs 16059.94 crore were available with the Centre for NREGA but the expenditure by the states has only been Rs 9833.95 crore.
In another key rural development programme"" Sampoorna Grammen Rozgar Yojna (SGRY)"" the utilization of funds was 76.96 per cent in 2006-07 and 65.64 per cent in 2007-08. But the UPA government's reply of accounts will not just be confined to its own regime.
According to Singh, "I will give details of funds available and expenses during the last eight years. Let them counter the performance in the four years of UPA rule versus the last four years of NDA rule."
"Rs 1,63,000 crore has been allotted to rural development projects during the UPA regime," he added.
Even though Singh will try to counter the Opposition-ruled states like UP and MP on the question of allocation, he can't help but admit that as far as outcome of the rural projects is concerned, BJP-ruled states like MP and Rajasthan fare much better than the Congress' states and even Singh's own Bihar.
