News Analysis: Review of PMGSY in Uttarakhand

Progress remains tardy in PMGSY
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 15 Sept: Uttarakhand continues to lag in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana. In fact, the implementation has been so poor that, as against the eligible 842 villages for the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana, only 31 villages have been provided with connectivity, so far. During the year 2006-07, as against the target of providing connectivity to 106 habitations, only 15 habitations were provided with connectivity. As against the target of construction of 422 kms of roads, only 106 km length of roads was constructed during the year 2006-07. Although, there was expectation of better utilisation of funds after the new Chief Minister, BC Khanduri, took over, 6 months on, the situation has not improved significantly.The Centre has, so far, cleared proposals to connect only 340 habitations, according to the sources. But it was not happy with the fact that implementation had showed no improvement even in the current financial year at a recent review meeting held in New Delhi. It may be recalled that Chief Minister BC Khanduri had promised the Union Rural Development Minister that he would make sure that the implementation was speeded up.What has been the implementation during the period 1 April to 31 July i.e. during the first 4 months of the current financial year? The target expenditure was fixed at Rs 200 crores. However, in reality, only Rs 23.85 crores was spent. In other words, only 11.93 percent of the financial target was achieved. As far as physical progress was concerned, against a target of 1169 km length of roads, only 57 kms of road length was constructed. In other words, only 4.88 percent of the physical target was achieved. Similarly, from yet another perspective, against a target of reaching 180 habitations, only 7 were reached in reality, which meant that only 3.89 percent of the target was achieved.Some improvement is certainly there as compared to previous year, but it is not a significant one. The government will have to really speed things up in the coming months if it wants to achieve even half the target for the year.According to sources, the Chief Minister held a review meeting in respect of PMGSY in the last week of August and expressed unhappiness at the slow progress in the scheme. Sources disclose that the Rural Development Department had decided to adjust the deficit of the first quarter in the remaining quarters and directed the officials to pace up the work. According to them, the state would have to spend at least Rs 21 crores each month and construct about 125 km road length in that period. But, so far, only Rs 6 crores have been spent each month. It is learnt that the PWD has promised it would be able to utilise Rs 102 crores in the PMGSY. It remains to be seen how the department will be able to meet its promised target.
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