Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS) A Planning Commission panel monitoring the implementation of the Rs.7,000 crore package for the backward Bundelkhand region, spread across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Tuesday expressed concern over the tardy progress on the ground.

“The monitoring committee has expressed concern over the quality of works under the package and low level of fund utilisation, especially in Uttar Pradesh,” Planning Commission member Mihir Shah, in-charge of the package, told IANS after a review meeting with the two state governments.

“We have asked the state governments to tighten up monitoring of the package and have told them to involve locals in the process for greater transparency.”

However, officials of the two states told the panel that fund utilisation has improved from a poor 11 percent in June to around 30 percent in November.

Shah said even 30 percent utilisation is not acceptable.

Following Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s intervention, the central government had sanctioned a Rs.7,000 crore package two years ago for development of the Bundelkhand region, which has a population of around 21 million.

Even as scene hots up in the run up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2012, the package has assumed political overtones with Rahul Ganhi accusing Chief Minister Mayawati for the “mess” in its implementation.

Plan panel officials said drought mitigation programmes in the region like cattle induction and digging wells has been faulty, leading to wastage of money.

According to a study conducted by NGO Action Aid, out of the Rs.3,506 crore sanctioned for Uttar Pradesh, only 26 percent has been released till June. Out of this, just 42 percent — or just 11 percent of the sanctioned ammount — has been utilised till June.

Of the Rs.3,760 crore sanctioned for Madhya Pradesh, the utilisation is almost similar at 11.22 percent, according to the NGO.

The package was required as the region has been suffering for the past eight years from drought, starvation and debt which have claimed 2,945 farmers’ lives in the region. There have been 519 farmer suicides in the last five months alone, the NGO said.

The NGO study further said over 75 percent of the rural households in the region are indebted and the average debt burden has been assessed at over Rs.45,000 per family.