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The deadline for the Bharat Nirman programme ends this month but most of the projects are moving at snail’s pace. The progress report shows government’s failure in most projects except rural housing and telephony. Syed Ameen Kader presents more information

The Rs1.76 trillion Bharat Nirman programme to boost rural infrastructure was launched in 2005 with March 31, 2009 as the deadline for completion. It has six components: roads, housing, telephony, drinking water, irrigation and electrification.

Rural road sector is among the worst hit as the Government released only Rs16042.16 crore till Dec 2008 out of the total proposed fund of Rs48,000 crore for four years.

It has, till Nov 2008, constructed new roads measuring mere 0.71 lakh km, covering 23,633 habitations against actual targets of 1.46 lakh km new connectivity and 59,564 habitations.

For rural electrification, the Govt. has released Rs2,668.47 crore till Dec 2008 out of allocated funds of Rs5,500 crore in 2008-09. It provided electrification to 54,317 un-electrified villages out of 1,25,000 target. Its target of providing drinking water to 6.03 lakh habitations has seen about 4.8 lakh getting access to potable water. The Govt. has released Rs5,524.76 crore against sanction amount of Rs7,300 crore till January 15,2009.

It set target of creating additional irrigation capacity of 10 million hectares (mha) but has managed to achieve only 5.08 mha. The current fiscal budget outlay was increased to Rs20,000 crore with grant component of Rs5,550 crore from last year’s Rs11,000 crore outlay with Rs3,580 crore grant. The Govt. has released Rs4,122.97 crore grant till December 31, 2008.  

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Housing and telephony are the only two components out of six where government has registered some success. It has exceeded its target of construing 60 lakh houses with 1.37 lakh more houses till Dec 2008. The Govt. has revised current fiscal target to 43.67 lakh from 21.27 lakh houses in view of additional funds made available under the economic stimulus package. During 2008-09, government allocated Rs8,800 crore under various packages.

In rural telephony, the Govt. provided 56,030 Villages Public Telephones (VPT) against target of 66,822 uncovered villages. Funds worth Rs139.28 crore have been released under the scheme up to Dec 2008. A total sum of Rs451 crore may be required to provide VPTs in these villages.

Through the Bharat Nirman programme, the FM has proposed to provide Rs31,280 crore in 2008-09 and Rs Rs40,900 crore for 2009-10. The Govt. has also allocated Rs7,400 crore for the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Drinking Water Mission, Rs1,200 crore for Rural Sanitation Programme and Rs12,070 crore for National Rural Health Mission for 2009-10. The Govt’s enhanced spending for rural infrastructure could be seen as a desperate effort to boost economy. But that clearly has not happened due to its dismal track record of project implementation. Projects are getting delayed and funds are lying unspent. It may take another couple years for the Govt. to spend these new allocated funds.

A major obstacle is the States’ inability to arrange for their share.  To solve this problem, the Centre has allowed States to increase their infra borrowing. Another reason for delay is the failure of administrative machineries like rural development agencies and gram panchayats. The idea was to involve the stakeholders in project execution. But that has not helped as many of these rural bodies are unable to handle such big projects and resort to favouritism.