Date:08/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/08/stories/2008110850931400.htm

National

Indira Awas Yojna way behind target

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Quite a few crucial programmes meant for the uplift of the poor are progressing at a snail’s pace.

According to the Union Rural Development Department that took stock of its achievement during the first six months of the current financial year ending September 30, only 5,67,905 houses under the Indira Awas Yojna for below the poverty line people have been constructed across the country. This is just about 25 per cent of the target set for the current financial year. The department had set out to construct 21,27,165 units.

In a bid to speed up things, the department has set apart Rs.5,645.77 crore for distribution among the States.

Notwithstanding the pressure to stave off the effects of the global slowdown, the States failed miserably in creating employment opportunities. Only Rs.4.56 lakh was given as assistance under the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna between April and September of 2008, which again is just about a fourth of the annual target under the scheme.

The Rural Development Department has allotted Rs. 2,000 crore hoping to turn things around.

How well the scheme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is being augmented can be gauged from the fact that only 48 training programmes have so far been conducted by the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD). It was to have held as many as 320 such exercises by the end of March 2008. The NIRD has been granted Rs.24 crore additionally to make up for the lost ground.