Date:30/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/30/stories/2006083008720500.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam biggest rural development scheme

T. Ramakrishnan

Aimed at injecting substantial amount of resources for village panchayats Aimed at injecting substantial amount of resources for village panchayats

CHENNAI: The Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam, wholly funded by the State Government, has emerged as the biggest of all rural development schemes. It is a Centrally sponsored and State funded.

Aimed at injecting substantial amount of resources for village panchayats over five years, the scheme covers many development works such as laying of concrete roads, installation of streetlights and sodium vapour lamps, setting up village markets, building reading rooms, creating ponds and providing water supply. Each year, the Government will allocate Rs. 500 crore to cover 2,500 village panchayats. In five years, all the 12,618 panchayats will be covered on an outlay of Rs.2,500 crore.

Allocations for other schemes in 2006-2007 include Rs. 282 crore for the Member of Legislative Assembly Constituency Development Scheme, Rs. 251.3 crore for the Sampoorna Grammen Rozgar Yojana and Rs. 220 crore for the Tamil Nadu Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Under the Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam, "economically-weaker" panchayats — the status to be decided on the basis of per capita income — will be covered first.

One fifth of the village panchayats in each block will be covered each year in the ascending order of per capita income.

Sources say the scheme has been designed in such a way that the "poor" village panchayats will get priority, as they find it difficult to provide the statutory services or improve infrastructure.

The Centrally-sponsored schemes, according to this year's Rural Development Department's policy note, have tight guidelines and do not offer the flexibility to execute works that may be locally desirable. Furthermore, they do not provide adequate funds. The Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam has addressed this problem.

Improved version

The new scheme is an improvement on similar schemes of the past. The old Anna Marumalarchi Thittam, executed during the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazahagam regime, covered one village panchayat in an Assembly constituency every year. Whereas, the new scheme will target on an average 12 panchayats.

As against the Namadu Grama Thittam, implemented during the AIADMK regime, which envisaged distribution of resources thinly across all village panchayats, the Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam seeks to provide Rs. 20 lakh to every panchayat. Under the Namadu Grama Thittam, allocations of Rs. 1.10 lakh per panchayat were made in 2004-05 and Rs. 1.25 lakh in 2005-2006, according to the official document.