Flagship failure of BJP

SNS, Editorial, 20 June, 2016: The report of the Common Review Mission, formed by the rural development ministry, is a severe indictment of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, which was conceived more than a decade ago as the bedrock of welfare. Logically, the BJP dispensation ought to have improved upon the flagship public policy endeavour that was launched by its predecessor government. Far from it.

Central to the virtual deadlock in a swathe of states has been the Centre's failure to release funds on time to the extent that the scheme has been kept in suspended animation in several parts of the country. “Workers have not been paid even until a year later because of non-availability of funds,” is the damning indictment by the report of the committee that was headed by a former Union secretary. It might be pointless to labour the obvious -- the unannounced cut in public spending.

But it shall not be easy for the Centre to dispel the dominant impression that the scheme has lost its credibility among the target group, notably the workers in poverty-stricken rural India.

This has widened the gulf between town and country. It is fervently to be hoped that the report will not be docketed, as most official findings are. Direly imperative is follow-through action, to revive the scheme in right earnest and to shore up its credibility.

If such fundamentals are not in place, the heady slogans of 21st century India -- which seemingly form the basis of Modi’s governance -- are bound to be reduced to irrelevance. True the scheme had to an extent checked distress migration, even improved agricultural production in backward areas, but the imbroglio is bound to reverse whatever had been achieved over the past decade.

The study is based on a cross-section of states, notably Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Tripura. It is a measure of the volume of cuts that the delayed funds in the case of MP rose from Rs. 947 crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 1168 crore in 2015-16 and almost half this amount related to unpaid wages.

There has recently been a partial release of funds to the administration in Bhopal, but the state has had to shell out a fair amount for full settlement of dues. Under the scheme, the material costs have to be shared -- 75 per cent by the Centre and 25 per cent by the state. Rajasthan is equally affected; a large number of projects undertaken in the name of the Father of the Nation are incomplete because employees’ bills are piling high. To that can be added the rampant irregularities in money transfers to workers. Altogether a flagship failure has been reaffirmed by a government committee.