Restructuring of rural development schemes
Lok Sabha
The various schemes of this Ministry are reviewed from time to time and revamped/restructured depending upon findings of impact evaluation studies, suggestions of other Departments, public representatives etc. On the basis of the suggestions made by the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Rural Development had earlier undertaken a Zero Based Budgeting exercise after which the National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS), National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS) and Annapurna Scheme were transferred to the State Governments. With effect from September, 2001, the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) have been restructured into a single wage employment Scheme, viz., Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY).
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has come into operation from 2nd February, 2006 in 200 selected districts of the country which includes 150 districts where National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP) was in operation which has now been discontinued. The wage employment programme of Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) has also been subsumed with the NREGA in these 200 districts and it is proposed to extend the NREGA to all the districts of the country in the next four years.
With a view to ensure that funds allotted are properly utilized, the Ministry of Rural Development has put in place a comprehensive multi-level and multi-tool system of monitoring and evaluation of the programmes. The State Governments have been advised to adopt a five-pronged strategy consisting of (i) creation of awareness about the schemes, (ii) transparency, (iii) people’s participation, (iv) accountability – social audit through Gram Sabha and (v) strict vigilance & monitoring of all schemes.
This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development, Smt. Suryakanta Patil in reply to an unstarred question in Lok Sabha today.
AD/MLD/JA
(Release ID :22717)