Srinagar, Sep 28: At least half a dozen reports by the Planning Commission of India have pointed out to ‘interference’ of local legislators in Jammu and Kashmir in selection of beneficiaries for different centrally-sponsored schemes allotted to the state from time to time in the past one decade or so.
As per the reports, which carry data about various schemes from the year 2000 to 2007 and beyond, have pointed to discrepancies in implementation of the centrally-sponsored schemes, including Indra Awas Yojna [IAY], Integrated Child Development Scheme [ICDS], Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana [SGRY] and Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana [SGSY].
The multi-page reports, copies of which are with Greater Kashmir, have been prepared by the Planning Commission of India through a collaborative mechanism between Programme Evaluation Organization [PEO] New Delhi, Regional Evaluation Office, Planning Commission, Chandigarh and University of Kashmir. The studies have made assessment of four districts, two each in Jammu and Kashmir regions, on the centrally-sponsored schemes.

INDRA AWAS YOJNA [IAY]
Indra Awas Yojna [IAY]—a centrally-sponsored scheme is aimed at helping construction and up-gradation of dwelling units of members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, freed bonded labourers and other below poverty line people by providing them a financial assistance. The report about the scheme says most of the officials involved with its implementation also non-beneficiaries of the scheme mentioned that local MLAs interfere in the selection of IAY beneficiaries.
“It was also found that cheques were distributed by the MLAs in public gatherings. This delays the disbursement of the assistance and consequently affects the progress of work. Pertinently, legislators in J&K are every now and then seen issuing statements on distribution of IAY cheques—a practice which hasn’t been abandoned. The report says the practice of distributing cheques by the MLAs should be stopped and payments should be released to the beneficiaries through their bank accounts without waiting for the MLAs to arrange public gatherings.
The report says that though the scheme has helped many poor families to construct houses, but “no standard economic criterion was followed to identify the beneficiaries.” “Around 7 percent of the beneficiaries who had an annual income of Rs 30,000 or more were selected whereas non-beneficiaries with an annual income of less than Rs 10,000 were left out. This indicated that APL families were also given benefits under the scheme whereas some BPL families were left uncovered despite applications,” the report says.
The scheme envisages that District Rural Development Agencies [DRDAs] should make efforts to utilize, to the maximum possible extent, local materials and cost effective technologies developed by various institutions. “However, neither DRDAs nor State Government has made any effort in this direction,” the report says.
The report says the houses constructed were made of a combination of pacca bricks and locally made bricks.  “Neither low cost material nor timber nor tin sheets were made available to the beneficiaries in the state by the DRDAs at subsidized rates. Fuel efficient chullas, drinking water, sanitation and sanitary latrines were provided to only a few IAY dwelling. The system of drainage from the houses was not provided to avoid shortage of village paths due to overflow water and wastage from the kitchen, bathroom,” the report mentions.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the Indira Awaas Yojana is being implemented by the Department of Rural Development. The two divisions of the State (Kashmir and Jammu) have separate Directorate of Rural Development. These two Directorates are responsible for planning, implementation, allocation of state share to districts, coordination and monitoring of the IAY at the provincial level.
The report has called for total transparency in the selection of beneficiaries. “Wide publicity should be given to the IAY action plan through newspapers and the list of IAY applicants selected should be displayed at some public places so as to invite objections. This would ensure total transparency in the selection of IAY beneficiaries. Besides, the applicants who are put in waiting list should be given preference in the next financial year,” the report reads.
The guidelines of IAY envisage that no design should be prescribed for IAY dwelling unit, except the condition that the plinth area of the house should not be less than 20 sq meters. “It was observed that the implementing authority did not insist on the condition of the plinth areas. The beneficiaries generally occupy more plinth area with the result they were not able to complete the house within the allotted amount.”
Finally, the report says, there is a need to have a periodic evaluation of IAY in the state.

Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana(SGRY)
The primary objective of the Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) is to provide 100 days of assured wage employment to adult households in rural areas and thereby provide food security and improve nutritional levels. The scheme has been subsumed with National Rural Employment Guarantee Act from February 2006.
The report says Panchayats were to be involved in the preparation of Annual Action Plans in the villages. “However, in villages where panchayats were not functional, the Mates (contractors) were responsible for preparation of resolution of the proposed work, arranging work order, the material and labourers, execution of work, arranging payments from the block office and making payments to the labourers. These Mates were generally identified by the local MLAs and their main motive was to make profit out of the works allotted to them for execution. Hence, there was a need to eliminate Mates from the implementation of the Scheme,” says the report.
The situation, according to sources, is similar as on date as most of the works were carried out by Mates.
The report says the Annual Action Plans were not prepared strictly as per the guidelines. “In most of the cases there was no evidence of preparation of Annual Plan and planning with regards to employment generation, asset creation and allocation as per the felt needs of the people. An examination of the Annual Action Plans reflected that these were mere repetition of the earlier plans, without going into the details of available local potential, local needs, existing infrastructure.
The report says MLAs played a vital role in finalizing the action plans and selection of mates in heir respective constituencies. “There was hardly any community participation in preparation of action plan, identification of the beneficiaries, supervision, monitoring and maintenance of the assets created under the scheme,” the report says.
The report says there was lack of awareness about the contents and procedure for availing benefits under the scheme among the prospective beneficiaries. “Hence, there is urgent need to create awareness about the scheme among the masses and encouraging their involvement in the implementation of the scheme.”
The scheme envisages that food grains should be given as part of wages under SGRY to the rural poor at the rate of 5 kg per man-day. “Though the official statistics showed that all the food grains lifted by the districts were distributed among beneficiaries, but it was mentioned by large majority of beneficiaries that they did not receive any food grains as part of the wage under SGRY. It was mentioned by the Mates that generally the beneficiaries were not interested in receiving part of the wages in food grains, because they believe that the food grains provided under the scheme were of poor quality. However, the qualitative information gathered from the beneficiaries revealed that contractors sell the food grains in the open market in order to make profit out of it.”

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)
The SGSY was introduced in 1999 with the objective of developing micro enterprises in rural areas, thereby building upon the potentials of rural poor belonging to BPL families. Under the Scheme, financial assistance both in the form of loan and subsidy is provided to the beneficiaries, to both individuals as well as Self Help Groups (SHGs) to set up their own enterprises.
The SGSY scheme is implemented in all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir more or less as per the guidelines of the scheme, as per its report.
The report however says SGSY lays heavy emphasis on formation of Women’s Self Help Groups. “But it appeared that in Jammu and Kashmir less importance was given to the formation of Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs). Women SHGs accounted for only 16 percent of the total number of SHGs formed in the state during 2003-07. In Doda and Rajouri districts there were virtually no WSHGs, whereras in Anantnag and Kupwara districts WSHGs accounted for less than 10 percent,” the report says.
SGSY seeks to promote multi-stage credit rather than one-time credit. “Hence, the requirements of the Swarozgaris were to be carefully assessed and they were to be encouraged to increase their credit intake over the years. It was, however, found that in Jammu and Kashmir all the loan disbursed by the banks were one time loan. No efforts were made to encourage the beneficiaries to increase their credit requirements,” the report says.
The government was also supposed to provide marketing facilities for the products produced by the Swarozgaris. “However, 66 percent of the groups reported that they market their products personally. Most of the respondents reported that government had not provided them any facility like arranging their participation in exhibitions, fairs and melas for marketing their products. Some of the beneficiaries mentioned that they participated in some exhibitions organized by KVIB and DRDA, but the objective of these exhibitions was basically to display the products manufactured by the Swarozgaris and not to market them and thus these exhibitions were of little utility to the Swarozgaris,” the report said.
During the survey, the report says, it was found that the knowledge about the scheme and its various aspects of the scheme was vague and limited. “Lack of commitment of officials, their inability to mobilize the Self Help Groups and illiteracy of rural women were some of the reasons for poor performance of SGSY in the state. It may be concluded that SGSY has not yet been able to take off in the state as per the guidelines and stated objectives.”
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
ICDS was launched by Govt. of India in 1975 to protect children from malnutrition, minimize infant mortality rate, enhance the capabilities of mothers to look after the health and overall development of the child. The ICDS is fully financed by Govt. of India, except the nutrition component, which is expected to be met by State Governments. As per a 2007 data, the report says the scheme covers all 140 ICDS blocks of Jammu & Kashmir. “As of March 2007, a total of 18772 Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) were sanctioned in the state and out of which 18043 (96 percent) were operational.”
The report says the authority for planning and budget formulation approval and release of funds was largely centralised at the Directorate level. “This often resulted in procedural and systematic delays and insufficient allocation. The Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) were of the view that under this system, the demands/needs prepared at the project level do not get reflected in terms of allocation. Further, the timely release of funds has been affected by the delays in the submission of the utilization certificates. Purchase and procurement was centralized with the Central Purchase Committee. Centralized system did not allow flexibility and scope for increasing/decreasing ceilings.”
Apart from vacancies at different levels of ICDS administration, the report says in most of the cases, the selection of AWWs was based on political and other considerations. “As a result the criteria of educational competence of AWWs were compromised. It is suggested that the task of recruitment of Supervisors should be assigned to Services Selection Board and new recruitment policy devised by the government for filling up the posts of AWWs should be strictly followed,” the report mentions.
It says a regular and planned monitoring, supervision and support is essential for effective delivery of the AWC services with provisions of mid way corrections.
According to ICDS guidelines, the space for the AWC was to be donated by the community at a central location, preferably near to a primary school. “It was rather one of the criteria that whosoever provided space was considered for the work of AWH. Consequently, both the quality of space and the locational aspects of the AWCs were compromised,” the report says. “Like-wise, other facilities such as separate storage space, kitchen and dinning and sufficient space for indoor and outdoor activities, toilet and washing facilities, ventilation and drinking water were also compromised. It was also found that AWCs at large did not have enough space for outdoor activities and hence compromising the scope for children development. Hence, it is suggested that buildings should be constructed for all the AWCs and funds available under different Centrally Sponsored Schemes like SGRY could be devoted for the construction of AWC buildings.”
The report says the beneficiaries for the supplementary feeding were to be selected very carefully so as to ensure coverage of the neediest and the malnourished children below the age of 6 years, particularly those between the ages of 6 months to 3 years. “It was observed that the selection of the beneficiaries was solely determined by the AWWs and they have not followed any standard criterion for the selection of the beneficiary households. Consequently, even children from the economically well off families were also enrolled at the AWCs, whereas those actually eligible were left out,” the report says.

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