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Indira Awas has take off issues

According to the finance ministry data, out of the Rs10,513.2 core earmarked for the district rural development agencies under IAY, Rs4,930.32 crore have been released.

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Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), which provides financial assistance to the rural poor for building houses, has seen only 25% physical progress in the current financial year till September even though the district rural agencies have been allocated almost half of the funds meant for the year by September.

According to the finance ministry data, out of the Rs10,513.2 core earmarked for the district rural development agencies under IAY, Rs4,930.32 crore have been released. Despite half of the funds being released, only one fourth of the target has been achieved. For that amount, 30.10 lakh houses were to be constructed. However, till September 2012, only 7.67 lakh houses have been constructed, which is 25.48% of the target.

A look at the previous year’s performance of the scheme shows that, like this year, utilisation of funds remains a challenge. According to the ministry of rural development, which is the nodal ministry for the implementation of the project, out of the sanctioned Rs18,982.69 crore in 2011-12, Rs12,451 crore could be utilised.

According to a rural development ministry presentation on the scheme, states such as Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka are the worst performers as far as physical progress and utilisation of funds is concerned. In Bihar, the physical progress was 64% in 2011-12 and utilisation of funds out of the total available funds is 52%. Similarly, in J&K the physical progress reported in 2011-12 was 41.2 per cent and utilisation of funds was 26.87%. The ministry report says 6,433 houses sanctioned during 2010-11 and 2011-12 in J&K were incomplete till March 2012.

The better-performing states are Jharkhand (physical progress 143%), Odisha (99.52%), Himachal Pradesh (106%) and Haryana (99.94%).

“Spending as a proportion of available funds (releases and unspent balances from previous years) was consistent at 84% between FY 2006-07 and FY 2009-10. In FY 2008-09, however, spending dropped to 58% of available funds. FY 2010-11 saw a decrease in expenditure by 9 percentage points, with only 75% of available funds being spent,” said a report released by Accountability Initiative – a non-government organisation.

The scheme aims at helping those belonging to the below poverty line (BPL) category in the rural areas by granting financial assistance for construction of houses. The funding of the IAY is shared between the Centre and the states, in the ratio of 75:25 and in the case of union territories,100% funding is done by the central government.

In the case of the North East states, the funding ration is 90:10. Under the scheme, the government provides Rs45,000 per house for plain areas and Rs48,500 for hilly areas. For upgrade of a house Rs15,000 is provided.

The 60 left wing extremism (LWE) affected districts are eligible for a higher rate of unit assistance of Rs48,500.
 

Follow Ashutosh Kumar @The_AK_84

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