Year End Review-2017: Ministry of Rural Development

Credit, Ministry of Rural Development

 Pradhan Mantri Awwas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G)

The erstwhile scheme of IAY has been  restructured into Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) with effect from 1^st April, 2016 and is in line with the Government’s commitment of providing ‘Housing for All by 2022’ with improved scheme architecture and robust delivery and monitoring mechanism.

Read Also, Year End review: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

Achievement/Initiatives during 2017-18:

• The Ministry envisages to construct  1 crore houses in rural India at enhanced unit assistance of Rs 1.20 lakh in plain areas and Rs 1.30 lakh in difficult areas/hilly states/IAP districts by 2018-19 under PMAY-G.  In addition to the unit assistance, the beneficiary is also entitled to receive Rs 12,000 for construction of a toilet and 90/95 days of unskilled wage labour for construction of the house in convergence with MGNREGS.
• Against the target of 75.88 lakh houses allocated to the States/UTs under PMAY-G during 2016-18, 71.01 lakh beneficiaries have been registered, out of which 63.72 lakh houses have been geo-tagged. 58.58 lakh beneficiaries have received sanctions of their houses, out of which 53.20 lakh and 34.44 lakh beneficiaries have received 1^st and 2^nd installments respectively (as on 14.12.2017) for the construction of their houses and 11.57 lakh PMAY-G houses have been completed so far.
• Innovative use of space technology has ensured that resources are targeted to genuine beneficiaries by allowing verification of current housing status.
• Uploading of geo tagged and time stamped photographs of beneficiaries in front of their existing dwellings, using the mobile Application viz. Awaas App, has been made mandatory for sanctioning houses under PMAY-G.
• It is proposed that 20000 rural masons will be trained and certified under the training initiative in FY 2017-18.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

● MGNREGA aims at enhancing livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year. The allocation of Rs.48,000 crore for the FY 2017-18, is the highest ever allocation for MGNREGA.

● During 2017-18 so far, 4.35 crore households have been provided employment in 156 lakh works. In the process, 160 crore persondays of employment have been generated. Out of the total employment, 54% have been generated for women, well above the statutory requirement of 33%.

●In FY 2017-18 (so far) nearly 60% of total expenditure is on Natural Resource Management (NRM) works. Expenditure on agriculture and allied sector works in FY 2017-18 is nearly 71%, which was only around 48 % in FY 2013-14.

● The thrust on agriculture and allied activities is visible at the field level with about 71% expenditure on these works in FY 2017-18. Under Mission Water Conservation, 2264 water stressed blocks have received special attention for Natural Resource Management including water harvesting and water conservation.

● During 2017-18, 3.6 lakh farm ponds and 1.55 lakh Vermi/ NADEP compost pits have been completed so far.

● 96% of the wages are being paid electronically into the Bank/Post Office accounts of MGNREGA workers through NeFMS.

●Under GeoMGNREGA, using space technology, more than 2 crore assets have been geotagged and made available in the public domain.

●As per the Socio-Economic Caste Census – 2011 (SECC), around 5.40 Crore households fall under the category landless households dependent on manual casual labour for livelihood. The Government is making all efforts to bring these households, who are not having Job Cards and are willing, to get employment under MGNREGS.

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

The primary objective of PMGSY is to provide connectivity by way of all-weather roads. The programme also has an upgradation component with a target to upgrade existing rural roads in order to ensure full farm to market connectivity. PMGSY-II aims to cover upgradation of existing selected rural roads based on a criterion to make the road network vibrant. Development of Rural Hubs and growth centres are crucial to the overall strategy of facilitating poverty reduction through creating rural infrastructures. Growth centres/rural hubs provide markets, banking and other service facilities enabling and enhancing self-employment and livelihood facilities.

• PMGSY, the rural road connectivity scheme, has made considerable contribution in connecting far flung and scattered areas of the country.
• Out of a total of 1,78,184 eligible habitations under PMGSY, 1,45,158 habitations have been connected bringing the total habitations connected to 82%.
• 5,08,047.22 km of road length have been completed under PMGSY during 2017-18 (as on October 2017), with an expenditure of Rs. 1,63,059.16 crore.
• Road length of 17330 km have been constructed by covering 4817 habitations during the year 2017-18 (April to October, 2017).
• PMGSY has also approved the proposals for all the remaining habitations to be connected and it is expected to attain almost 100% connectivity by March, 2019.
• An amount of Rs. 1,47,984.88 crore has been released under PMGSY during 2017-18 (as on October 2017).
• 1.07 lakh kilometers of upgradation is proposed as PMGSY-III.  In this endeavour, the annual funding support of Rs. 19000 crore from the Central Government will be maintained upto 2022.
• Further, connecting habitations in LWE affected blocks have also been undertaken in 9 States with a target of constructing 5382 km. This project has been initiated from 2016-17 and is expected to be completed by March, 2020.
• PMGSY is aggressively encouraging use of “Green Technologies” and non-conventional materials like waste plastic, cold mix, geo-textiles, fly-ash, iron and copper slag etc. in rural roads.  During the current year (upto 27^th Sept. 2017) 2,484 kms PMGSY road length has been constructed using “Green Technologies.
• 15% of all PMGSY roads are now being taken up through use of innovative green technologies like use of waste plastic, geo-textiles, fly ash, iron and copper slag and cold mix.
• With a view to bring transparency & responsiveness in governance, plug leakages and to quickly address the citizen grievances, PMGSY has been encouraging use of information technology, mobile technology and space technology. A Mobile Application “Meri Sadak” launched to enable citizens to register complaints regarding the quality and pace of construction of PMGSY roads.
• PMGSY-II programme launched to cover upgradation of existing selected rural roads based on a criterion to make the road network vibrant. So far, 12 States have transited to PMGSY-II for which 3,738 works have already been cleared covering 25,791.56 km upgradation works (as on October, 2017). States have completed 1459 works by upgrading 11,798.85 km road length.

National Social Assistance Programme  (NSAP)

NSAP comprises of five sub-schemes namely Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS), Indira Gandhi National Widow  Pension Scheme (IGNWPS), Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS), National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) and Annapurna Scheme. The schemes of NSAP are implemented both in urban and rural areas, by the Social Welfare Department in the States.

• The National Social Assistance Programme covers 3.20 crore beneficiaries include about 2.40 crore old age pensioners, 70.43 lakh widow pensioners and 10.32 lakh pensioners with disability.
• NSAP has been included under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme and in the current year State of Gujarat and UT of Lakshadweep are using 100% transfer through DBT mechanism.  DBT has been partially implemented in the States of Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
• For preventing leakages of funds to unintended beneficiaries 100% records have been digitized.·   74.08% of Aadhar of beneficiaries have been seeded in the Bank A/Cs.
• There is proposal to revamp the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) as Pradhan Mantri Samajik Suraksha Yojana (PMSaSY) admissible to 5.07 crore beneficiaries.

Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) seeks to reach out to 8-9 crore rural poor households and organize one woman member from each household into affinity based women SHGs and federations at village level and at higher levels.

Progress:

• During 2017-18 (as on October 2017), 683 additional blocks have been covered under “Intensive” implementation strategy of DAY-NRLM bringing the cumulative total to 4330 blocks.
• During the year 2017-18 so far, over 56 lakh households have been mobilized into 4.84 lakh SHGs.
• SHGs have also been extended a capitalization support of Rs. 729.74 crore.
• A total amount of Rs. 35410.42 lakh has been disbursed to 2.84 lakh SHGs as Revolving Fund (RF) while Rs. 53599.77 lakh has been disbursed to 1.01 lakh SHGs and their federation as Community Investment Fund (CIF) so far during 2017-18.
• The SHG-Bank Linkage programme has seen tremendous growth year on year under DAY-NRLM. During this financial year, about 14.2 lakh SHGs have accessed credit of Rs. 18000 crore up to October, 2017.
• More than 33 lakh Mahila Kisans have been covered under Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) in 17 States, to empower women in agriculture and enhance their participation and productivity in agriculture based livelihoods.
• “Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY)” has been initiated as a sub scheme under DAY-NRLM to provide an alternative source of livelihoods to members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) under DAY-NRLM by facilitating them to operate public transport services in backward rural areas and  to provide safe, affordable and community monitored rural transport services (e-rickshaws, 3 and 4 wheeler motorised transport vehicles) to connect remote villages with key services and amenities (including access to markets, education and health) for the overall economic development of the area by making use of the supports available within the framework of DAY-NRLM. The sub-scheme will be implemented in 250 blocks in the country on a pilot basis for a period of 3 years from 2017-18 to 2019-20. Till date, proposals from 17 States have been approved and 153 vehicles have started operating in rural areas.
• Promotion of rural enterprises: Start Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) is a sub-scheme of DAY-NRLM designed to support rural youth to take up local entrepreneurship. As on date, 7800 enterprises have been promoted across 17 States. It is expected that SVEP will support an additional 25000 entrepreneurs during the year 2018-19.

Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY)

DDU-GKY is a placement linked skill-training programme and is uniquely placed to empower rural poor youth with employable skills and facilitate their participation in regular labour market. It is currently being implemented in 28 States.

Progress:

• DDU-GKY has over 566 Training Centers in 674 Projects, in partnership with over 310 Project Implementing Agencies conducting training across 39 sectors, and over 329 job roles (as on 31.10.17).
• Against a target of skilling 2 lakh candidates during the current financial year, over 83,745 candidates have already been trained, of which over 46,654 candidates have been placed in jobs (as on 31.10.17).
• The Ministry has selected 12 new Champion Employers and entered into an MoU with them for high quality training and placements.

Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs): At present RSETIs are offering training in more than 56 vocations classified under major areas like agriculture, processing, product manufacture and general EDP.

Initiatives:

• During 2017-18 (as on 31.10.17), 7,897 candidates have been trained under Project LIFE MGNREGA by RSETIs.
• 9,200 candidates have been credit linked under thrust programmes of PMO while 3,519 candidates have been credit linked under PM MUDRA Yojana by the RSETIs.
• The National Centre for Excellence of RSETIs (NACER) was selected by ASSOCHAM for “Best NGO in Skill Development” for remarkable contribution in Entrepreneurship Development through RSETIs for the year 2016-17.
• Another initiative ‘Kaushal Panjee’ (Skill Register) has also been undertaken which provides a citizen centric end-to-end solution to aid mobilization of candidates for Rural Self Employment and Training Institutes (RSETIs) and DDU-GKY.

Progress:

• 586 RSETIs are functioning  across the country.
• Over 25.24 lakh unemployed youth have been trained under RSETIs, out of which, about 16.64 lakh have been settled (from 1.4.2008 up to 30.11.2017).
• Against a target of skilling 3.97 lakhs candidates in FY 2017-18, 2,34,692 candidates have been trained and 1,55,174 settled.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee RURBAN Mission

The Government approved the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) with an outlay of Rs. 5142.08 crores on 16^th September, 2015 with the objective to transform rural areas into economically, socially and physically sustainable spaces. Under this Mission, 300 clusters in rural areas, across 29 States and 5 UTs, with latent potential for growth are to be identified, following clearly enunciated methodologies in the framework of implementation.

• Against the allocation of 300 clusters, 267 clusters have already been identified following the prescribed cluster selection methodology. The emphasis is to develop the thematic economic strengths of the clusters, provide required amenities to support this, apart from saturating basic, social and digital infrastructure in the clusters within a period of 3 years.
• 153 Integrated Cluster Action Plans (ICAPs), which are the blue prints of investment for each cluster, have been approved for 29 States and one UT of Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
• The work in the clusters in areas identified are ongoing and nearly Rs 1500 crores of expenditure has been incurred under the Mission till date.
• At the end of the Mission period, the country will have 300 Rurban clusters which will be ODF, green, agro based and thematic clusters based on skilled manpower and access to economic opportunities.

Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY)

· Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 11th October 2014 with the objective of creating model Gram Panchayats in all parts of the country. The development of SAGY Gram Panchayats takes place under the guidance of Hon’ble Members of Parliament through the convergence and implementation of existing Government Schemes and Programmes without allocating any additional funds.

The Hon’ble Members of Parliament have adopted 1241 Gram Panchayats under SAGY as on 18^thDecember 2017. As an initial step, the Gram Panchayats identified under SAGY conduct awareness generation and social mobilisation activities. This is followed by a baseline survey and participatory formulation of a development plan for the village under the guidance of Hon’ble MPs. The Gram Panchayats adopted under SAGY prepared Village Development Plans (VDP) containing prioritised time-bound activities to achieve holistic progress of the village, through the convergence of resources. Out of the 1241 Gram Panchayats adopted under SAGY, 857 Gram Panchayats have uploaded their Village Development Plans on the SAGY website. As per data updated on the SAGY website till 18th December 2017, Gram Panchayats identified under SAGY have completed 19951 projects and 7152 (15.3%) projects are in progress.