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New job, housing schemes for rural sector

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Aug. 15

EVEN while declaring the coming year as the `Year of Implementation' and promising the constitution of a `Rapid Action Force' to monitor the implementation of existing poverty alleviation and employment generation programmes, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, used his customary Independence Day address today to announce a plethora of new ``ambitious'' welfare schemes.

These included a Rs 10,000-crore centrally-sponsored Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) aimed at providing additional and guaranteed employment in rural areas. Under this scheme, those taking employment from Panchayats for projects involving creation of durable rural assets will be paid wages in cash and in foodgrains. The Centre would provide 50 lakh tonne of foodgrains worth Rs 5,000 crore to State Governments annually for this purpose.

Mr Vajpayee said that the SGRY would create nearly 100 crore mandays of employment. Significantly, he also stated that all existing employment schemes of the Centre will be merged into the newly-created `mega-scheme.' In other words, this would imply an end to the likes of the Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (which, incidentally, is a revamped version of the erstwhile Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, which existed till March 1999), the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (started in April 1999) and the Employment As surance Scheme.

The Prime Minister also announced an Ambedkar Valmiki Malin Basti Awas Yojana aimed at providing ``affordable housing'' for the urban poor, especially those belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and other weaker sections. This scheme -- which is the urban counterpart of the Indira Awas Yojana for the rural poor -- will be funded through a Rs 1,000-crore yearly grant from the Urban Development Ministry. Besides, HUDCO, which is to be the implementation agency, will provide a loan amount of Rs 2,000 crore.

The third scheme announced was a National Nutrition Mission, under which subsidised foodgrains (again from the Food Corporation of India's huge stocks of over 60 million tonnes) would be made available to adolescent girls and expectant and nursing mother s, belonging to below-poverty-line families. And in what could provide scope for controversy, Mr Vajpayee stated that cheaper foodgrains could also be supplied to ``religious, social and educational organisations engaged in mass-feeding programmes for th e poor.''

The Prime Minister also announced a programme for building three lakh housing units for families of Jawans in the country's Armed Forces over the next four years. This would take care of the Army's housing deficit, which in the normal course of construct ion will take 30 years to cover.

While launching the new schemes, Mr Vajpayee said that he was ``acutely aware'' of the fact that many of the programmes prepared by the Government could not be implemented in an effective and time-bound manner. ``The Government has, therefore, decided to observe the coming year as the Year of Implementation. Towards this end, we shall constitute a Rapid Action Force to monitor the implementation for various poverty alleviation and employment generation programmes.''

While the coming year would be the Year of Implementation, the current year, Mr Vajpayee noted, is being observed as the Women's Empowerment Year. And in this connection, he said that the Government has decided that over the next three years, ``all publi c sector banks will lend five per cent of their net bank credit to women entrepreneurs (to) make available Rs 17,000 crore for women-sponsored businesses.''

In his speech, the Prime Minister also referred to the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana for rural roads connectivity, which was announced during his last year's Independence Day speech.

He said that the Centre had so far made available Rs 5,000 crore towards this project, which ``is now being implemented in almost all the States.'' This project would need Rs 60,000 crore for completion and, along with the Rs 55,000 crore National Highwa ys Development Project, would ``create lakhs of new employment opportunities and also give our economy a big boost.''