The finance minister sanctioned Rs 66,100 crore for rural development for 2010-11  Going by Mahatma Gandhi’s golden words, “Just as the universe is contained in the self, so is India contained in the villages,” it becomes imperative for the Indian government to develop rural infrastructure for the overall economic growth of the country. Statistics show around 71% of the country’s one billion-plus population resides in villages. Moreover, it was NDA[i] government’s catastrophic failure in addressing the needs of rural India that brought the ruling UPA[ii] to power in 2004. Obviously, much was expected from the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. So, as the UPA celebrated its first anniversary of the second consecutive innings in May with hits and misses, ConstructionBiz360 takes a peep into its commitments and achievements in connection to rural infrastructure. To add to its joy, 67% Indians felt that the ruling Congress government has been able to upgrade rural infrastructure, while 33% answered in the negative in a recent poll by the TJCD[iii] e-portal.
Brief stocktaking
While analysing the performance graph of the Congress government with respect to rural infrastructure, examining Bharat Nirman, the umbrella programme launched by UPA in 2006, becomes a pre-requisite. The programme focusing on six main segments—housing, drinking water, electricity, roads, telecommunication and irrigation—have witnessed an increase in allocation from Rs 40,900 crore in 2009 to Rs 48,000 crore in 2010. Moreover, the finance minister (FM) in the budgetary allocations sanctioned Rs 66,100 crore for rural development for 2010-11.
Starting with the rural housing scheme under Bharat Nirman, Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), the government has stepped up its previous target from building 6 million to 12 million houses by 2014, with a surge in allocation to Rs 8,996 crore in 2010-11 over that of Rs 7,918 crore in the previous financial year. While trying to retrieve figures about the current status, a TJCD correspondent contacted Sunita H Khurana, director of rural housing wing (Department of Rural Development, GoI), who said, “The physical achievement has been over 95%.” Furthermore, the Centre recently increased the unit cost under IAY to Rs 45,000 in plains and Rs 48,500 in hilly and difficult areas.
“The government has done a fairly good job with respect to rural connectivity (including roads and telecommunication) and drinking water,” opines Divendra B Gupta, former professor of Delhi University and currently a senior consultant at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). He was also a part of the ‘India Rural Infrastructure Report’, prepared by NCAER and sponsored by the Ratan Tata Trust.
“There has been a real revolution in providing telephone connectivity in villages and mobile phone usage among rural Indians has shown a distinct rise over the last 3 years. Much of this has been possible because of the government’s telecom policy,” notes Prof Gupta.
Speaking on rural road development Prof Gupta says, “Progress has been tardy.” The government should emphasise more on rural road maintenance (referring to ‘kuchcha’ roads) and for this it needs to work on capacity building of small contractors, adds Prof Gupta. However, in a major emphasis to rural road connectivity, the FM has announced an ambitious target to connect 1,67,000 habitations at a cost of Rs 1,32,000 crore by 2012 under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
Gauging the Centre’s performance and target in providing safe drinking water to all by 2012, Prof Gupta remarked, “If technically seen, 95% of the target has been achieved but practically the Centre has miles to go.” Justifying the statement, he said large number of tube wells in the rural areas remain unoperational due to shortage of power supply. To add to this, thousands of hand pumps have been lying defunct. These call for proactive government focus on repair and maintenance segment.
Under rural electrification, out of the total 593,732 villages in India (as per 2001 census) 496,365 have been electrified as on December 2009. The Power Ministry expects to electrify the remaining 96,106 villages by 2012. Curiously, statistics reveal that around 64,978 villages were electrified till December 2008.
In another effort to improve rural economy, the FM proposed to strengthen the regional rural banks (RRBs) in this year’s Union Budget. Going forward, the UPA government needs to do a considerable revamp of its strategies and policy priorities with respect to rural infrastructure, if it wishes to achieve the targets and take India to new highs.
Jeeta Bandopadhyay
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