Only 27% of backward region fund spent in 9 months

Only around 27 per cent of the funds allocated to the flagship Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) in the budget has been spent in nine months of the fiscal year.

The money is sitting in Delhi and is yet to reach the Panchayats for which it is intended because the state governments have not submitted plans on how they intend using it.

BRGF was designed as a major initiative of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to help backward regions catch up with the rest of the country. Rs 4,670 crore was allotted for the Fund in the 2007-08 budget.

Till November, only Rs 1,249 crore had been released to the consolidated funds of the state governments.

The programme covers 250 districts: 147 among these were part of the erstwhile Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) administered by the Planning Commission till last year. BRGF itself is administered by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Excuses for not submitting district plans abound. Some states have cited Assembly election preoccupations. Others say there are no panchayats in place.

BRGF is meant to be implemented through district plans which are prepared at the grassroots by the state government with active participation at the gram panchayat, block panchayat and zila panchayat level.

District Planning Committees (DPCs) are supposed to integrate plans of rural and urban local bodies, the aim being development in backward areas through infrastructure creation and convergence of development inflows.

Driven to despair by the state governments, the Union Panchayati Raj Ministry has categorised 15 states as 'laggards'.

Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura say they've been too busy with state elections to implement BRGF. Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have cited the weather - winter - as a reason which 'will inhibit participative planning'.

In Maharashtra and Manipur, DPCs haven't been constituted yet. In Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, district planning is at an "advanced stage" but District Planning Committees haven't been set up, an official said.

In Punjab and Uttarakhand, panchayat elections are due in January 2008 and in Sikkim newly-elected panchayats have just taken charge and need time.

While tension between the state government and district councils is inhibiting district planning in Mizoram even a developed state like Tamil Nadu has not started the process, the ministry said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh officially launched the fund in February in Assam. But that state has also shown a tardy response with none of the 12 districts covered by the programme submitting plans.

Panchayat elections are to be held in end December, the ministry said, and some progress is expected then.

A few of the states are expected to send their plans by the last quarter of the year so that the ministry can disburse some money within the fiscal.

In all, 108 districts in 15 states account for unspent money amounting to Rs 1,683 crore at the Centre now.

Alarmed at the slowdown in the programme, Panchayat Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar personally conducted a two-day national workshop on BRGF planning in New Delhi last month. The workshop generated some interest: as many as 70 district plans poured in after the event.

Constitution of DPCs in a haphazard manner and errors in drafting plans are also creating problem for the ministry in approving the plans.

"With 15 states out of the plans, we are now concentrating on other districts. We expect to report expenditure amounting to about Rs 3400 crore by December 2007 which will match the pace set by the finance ministry," one official said.