Govt hikes funds for rural development

With just a little more than a year left before the nation goes to polls, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government has proposed to raise the allocation for rural development to Rs 80194 crore in 2013-14, although an amount of about Rs 21371 crore is estimated to be left unspent from the fund earmarked for the sector this year.

The Ministry of Rural Development is likely to leave unutilized about 28 per cent of the total allocation of Rs 76423.02 crore earmarked for it in 2012-13.

But, notwithstanding under-utilization of fund, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday raised the allocation for the MoRD in 2013-14 by 46 per cent over its revised estimate of Rs 55052.03 crore for the current year – ostensibly to avoid sending out a negative message to rural electorate ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha polls.

Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh, attributed under-utilization of the budgetary allocation for his ministry to “serious administrative weaknesses” of the State Governments, particularly the Governments of the poorest and underdeveloped States like Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.

He also said that while the State Governments had failed to “absorb and spend the money on time”, the Union Government’s “complicated financial procedures” too contributed to under-utilization of the fund allocated to the MoRD in 2012-13.

Even the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme – the flagship scheme of the UPA Government – is unlikely to use up the entire sum of Rs 33000 crore allocated for it in 2012-13. Though Rs 29387 crore is estimated to be spent for the programme during the current fiscal year, Finance Minister in his Budget 2013-14 retained the allocation at 2012-13 level.