Bharat Nirman

The Govt has announced its second phase of Bharat Nirman which has a deadline of 2014.

This includes providing electricity to 40,000 villages, connect 23,000 villages by roads, raise the number of low cost houses to be constructed from 6 million to 12 million. Given the stress it has laid on promoting agriculture growth, it aims to being 3.5 million hectares of land under irrigation. Bharat Nirman is split into six parts – roads, electricity, low cost housing, drinking water, irrigation and telecom.

This sounds good but no one is really too excited at the moment as it is yet to clear the huge backlog from phase I itself. It proposed to give road connection to 66,802 eligible habitations which was later scaled down the target to 59,536 habitations. The achievement, however, has fallen short of the target – it provided only 49% of the proposed new roads, 55% in upgraded and developed roads and it managed to reach only 49% of the proposed habitations.

Providing electricity has been its biggest failure. Till 31st March 2009, 60 thousand villages remained untouched by electric power. Totally, of the targeted 7.8 crore households, which were to be provided with electricity, it reached only 7% households.

In irrigation, the target till March 2009 was 10 million hectare but it achieved only 5.58 million hectares, which is around 44% short of the target.

In water supply, the target was to provide potable water to 6,03,639 villages but it provided to only 4,79,898 villages till March 2009, which is 20% less than the target.

But in providing low cost housing to the rural population, it has actually exceeded the target. Done under the banner of Indira Awas Yojana, it is routed through the panchayats. As against the target of providing 60 million units, it has managed to provide 61 million houses, which is 102% above the target.

In telephones, the aim was to provide telephone connection to 66,822 number of villages without a telephone and replace presently dysfunctional systems. Of this, till March 2009, it managed to achieve 84% of the target at 56.030 villages.

Bharat Nirman has been an excellent idea, not just for the UPA as it helped them win the elections but also for India. But clearly, it has to work on speeding up when it comes to implementation. Till 31st March 2009, it had spent Rs.1.14 lakh crore on Bharat Nirman which is two-thirds of the target. This means, paucity of funds was the issue. Land litigation, vested political interests, problems with private contractors, corruption and cost overruns too its toll.