A Parliamentary panel today criticised the government over "inordinate delay" in coming up with a methodology for identification of below poverty line rural households and asked the Rural Development Ministry to analyse reasons for the delay in Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011.
Expressing "dismay" over no BPL census having been conducted for the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) during the previous UPA government, the Standing Committee on Rural Development headed by AIADMK member P Venugopal said this led to a situation of having "no updated data about BPL" for a long span of time, "denying the targetted assistance to needy and downtrodden sections" of the society all these years.
Rejecting the Ministry's arguments for the delay, the panel concluded that the role of GoI was "not at all proactive on this vital aspect of identification of poor in rural areas during all these years" and recommended that the Ministry analyse reasons for the delay in conducting BPL Census 2011 in proper persective.
In July this year, government released the first Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), first in eight decades that is expected to help it in effective implementation of its programmes but refrained from releasing the caste-based data.
The committee noted that BPL censuses were conducted for the eighth, ninth and tenth five year plans in time and asked the Ministry to fix reponsibility for the delay on agencies, rejecting its argument that it is not possible to do so since SECC is a massive and complex project undertaken after a long time since 1931.
Implementing agencies and stakeholders of SECC include
Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), Ministry of Home Affairs (Office of Registrar General of India), state governments, Union Territories and administrative and service providers from government and public sectors.
The panel criticised the government for "mishandling" of overall planning and implementation of SECC-2011, faulted its decisions like reducing time limit from one year to six months and crticised its "failure" to conduct both enumeration and supervision concurrently within tehsils and districts, and provide internet connectivity for data transfer.
"In view of massive and complex project of SECC-2011, the Committee has criticised the ill-preparedness on the part of MoRD/MoHUPA for undertaking the work with some experience of MoRD and nil experience of MoHUPA and have desired that proper spadework was needed on the part of staekholders.
"The Committee recommended fixing of responsibility and accountability of stakeholders for prolonged delay in conducting SECC 2011," Lok Sabha Secretariat said in its press release on the report.
In other key recommendations, the panel has suggested close coordination among stakeholders for uninterrupted and updated flow of day, need for awareness about SECC-2011 and expedtious completion of the exercise.
