)
The cabinet this week had to defer a crucial decision to prune the number of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) by either dropping them all-together or clubbing smaller schemes with larger programme as some ministries wanted to retain a few programmes which had allocations below Rs 100 crore per year.
Officials said Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia is now likely to personally meet all the ministries and departments which had some objection to the proposal and draft a fresh cabinet note incorporating their suggestions in the next 2-3 weeks.
The proposal to bring down the number of CSS was in line with the recommendations made by a high-powered committee constituted under the chairmanship of Planning Commission member B.K. Chaturvedi.
Some officials said the Finance Ministry, too had some objections to the proposals. The Chaturvedi panel in its first recommendations on rejigging the Centrally Sponsored Schemes had suggested bringing down the number of CSS from 147 CSS to 59 by either clubbing smaller programmes into larger ones or abolishing them completely. However, later it was modified and now the total number of CSS is proposed to be cut to around 70.
Schemes, which have an annual allocation of less than Rs 100 crore, would be either clubbed or abolished completely, leading to substantial saving for the government.
The panel also proposed to have a system of flexi-funds, wherein 20 per cent of the Budget allocated for a CSS (10 per cent in case of flagship schemes) could be used by the state governments according to their own needs, but within the broader framework of the programme.
Officials said if the Cabinet accepts the panel’s report in full then as part of the rationalization process, 11 CSS under ministry of health and family welfare could come down to just five. The government had spent Rs 18,000 crore in 2011-12 on the 11 programmes.
Big programmes like the national mental health programme, national programme for prevention and control of diabetes, cancer control programmes, programmes for health care for the elderly, will all form part of the broad national programme on non-communicable disease.
In the department of rural development, the National Rural Livelihood Mission could subsume schemes like the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) and the programme for development of district level rural development agencies called the DRDA Administration.
The DRDA programme was meant to develop agencies and institutions which could effectively monitor the central government’s anti-poverty programmes.
In the ministry of environment and forests, much-popular programmes like Project Tiger could form part of the larger scheme called conservation of natural resources and environment protection. Project Elephant, will become part of a bigger programme called the integrated development of Wildlife.
Another big change can come in the centrally sponsored programmes run by the department of school education and literacy and in ministry of labour and employment and social justice and empowerment.
In school education department, a broader scheme for supporting educational development will encompass as many as six small schemes like the programme for adult education and skill development and programme for appointment of language teachers.
In the ministry of labour and employment, of the 13 centrally sponsored programmes, barring the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, all other remaining 12 programmes will form part of the broader scheme for skill development.
Similarly, of the 13 CSS run by the ministry of social justice and empowerment, the panel recommended bringing them down to five and also making them more targeted.
