223 central schemes to be scrapped

The government has prepared a formula to scrap Central schemes of worth Rs 10,000 crores from the next financial year, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Dec 6, 2006, 19:20:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In a bid to provide financial boost to flagship programmes of UPA government in the next five years, the government has prepared a formula to scrap Central schemes of worth Rs 10,000 crores from the next financial year.

The plan, expected to be discussed, in the National Development Council meeting on Saturday can leave some government ministries and department devoid of their work. Ministries like Information and Broadcasting, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Department of Secondary and Higher Education, ministry of Water Resources, ministry of Environment and Forests and Department of Family Welfare are some of the key bodies that may lose huge money, if the plan is accepted.

According to government sources, 223 schemes — 103 under Central Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and 120 under Central Sector Programmes (CSP)— have been listed for scrapping. While the former costs Rs 7,023 crore, the latter requires Rs 2,276 crore from the government. “It is necessary to expand government resources for the flagship schemes of the government and to meet commitments made under the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP). And, it is only possible by the way of scrapping the schemes which have become redundant,” a government official explained.

Of the total 155 CSS, only 52 schemes, having annual outlay of more than Rs 300 crore and including flagship schemes, will remain with the Central Government. "We have worked on the basic premise that each district in the country should get Rs 50 lakh under a central scheme for its effectiveness," an official said.

Of the remaining 103, 25 schemes, with an annual outlay of between Rs 200-300 crore, would be allocated to the states for administering and rest would be closed, a government official said.

The plan prepared in consultation with the PMO has also listed 120 schemes under CSP for closure. "Most of these schemes will lose utility after end of 10th plan," an official said. Another 114 schemes, costing government Rs 6,981 crore, would be shifted to non-plan expenditure under the head — committed maintenance expenditure. "This is being done to check fiscal deficit,” he said. Remaining 83 schemes, costing Rs 59,000 crores, will continue, he added.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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