WORLD BANK TO FUND MORE RURAL DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES
SHRI VENKAIAH NAIDU HOLDS WIDE
RANGING DISCUSSION WITH WORLD BANK ON CAPACITY BUILDING
The World Bank has accorded
in principle clearance to support Government of India’s rural
connectivity programme and will field a Mission to India to conduct
some preliminary studies to draw up the road map for detailed
negotiations. All supportive information required for the Mission
is already available and will be provided to the Bank Mission
during their visit to India in June 2002. This was disclosed by
the Union Minister of Rural Development Shri M Venkaiah Naidu
after holding series of detailed discussions on 6th
and 7th May, 2002, with Vice Presidents and other senior
officials of the World Bank in Washington as part of his ongoing
visit to the USA.
During these discussions, the
Minister impressed upon the World Bank the need for assisting
the rural roads sector as rural connectivity is one of India’s
major rural development programmes. The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak
Yojana (PMGSY) was launched to provide connectivity to 1.65 lakh
habitations at a total cost of Rs. 60,000 crores (US $ 12.5 billion).
Shri Naidu emphasized that even though the diesel cess is expected
to generate about Rs. 20,000 crores, the resource gap is still
expected to be Rs. 40,000 crore for providing much-needed connectivity
to all habitations having more than 500 population by 2007. In
this context, the Minister requested the World Bank to support
the PMGSY Programme on a fast track.
Shri Venkaiah Naidu informed the World Bank that
as India is moving towards better decentralized governance, the
need to improve capacity of 3.4 million elected representatives
in more than 2.36 lakh Panchayats is even greater. He also pointed
out that 1/3rd of the elected representatives at the
grassroots level are women and substantial numbers are SC and
STs. Capacity building initiatives are need of the hour since
the Government of India is actively considering empowering Panchayats
with functions, functionaries, and finances in respect of 29 subjects
through a Constitutional Amendment. Training of all elected representatives
is necessary for the effective functioning of Panchayats and implementation
of Project Schemes and Programmes in the rural areas.
Shri Naidu informed the media that the World
Bank has shown keen interest in supporting the proposal on capacity
building of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The National Institute
of Rural Development (NIRD), 25 State Institutes of Rural Development
(SIRDs), 88 Extension Training Centres (ETCs) and other Professional
Institutions will be engaged in this capacity development exercise.
The Minister explained in detail to the World
Bank officials about the measures being taken towards generating
self-employment of the rural poor through Self Help Groups (SHGs)
under the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY). He pointed
that the response of people in the rural areas to the SHG Movement
is very high. Further, the mobilisation of women and poor is bringing
a sea-change at the grassroots level in rural India. Income generating
activities are getting converted into a social movement through
the Self Help Groups for promoting literacy, health, hygiene,
family planning and sanitation in the rural areas. The Minister
requested the World Bank for supporting initiatives for marketing
the produce of the Self Help Groups as this is vital for long
term sustenance of the SHG movement. The World Bank has shown
interest to support the Self Help Group Movement including assistance
towards strengthening marketing efforts of their products. It
also assured the Indian delegation that the District Poverty Initiative
Projects (DPIP) proposals for Karnataka and Chhatisgarh will be
brought to negotiations in a couple of months time.
In respect of the World Bank funded Rural Water
supply and Environmental Sanitation Projects, in addition to the
on-going projects in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka,
with a total outlay of US$ 312.4 million, the World Bank positively
responded to the Minister’s request to expedite clearance for
Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Sanitation Projects
totaling about US $ 250 million.
Shri Naidu highlighted that one of the major
challenges in the water supply sector was the quality problems
in 2.17 lakh habitations. He sought the assistance of the World
Bank in supporting the Government of India in mitigating the problems
of excess arsenic and fluoride contamination. The World Bank showed
positive response for launching a study along with Water Sanitation
Programme-South Asia on the techno-economics of technological
options for mitigating the arsenic problem in West Bengal. The
World Bank agreed to consider the expansion of the Project area
for tackling fluorosis problem in 4 states (UP, Uttaranchal, Kerala
and Karnataka). The states Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are also
likely to get World Bank funding. Further, the World Bank will
consider Government of India’s request for a multi-state national
programme for tackling excess fluorosis problem in other states.
Shri Venkaiah Naidu’s request to the World Bank
to support creation of National Capacity Development Fund for
scaling up reforms in the Water and Sanitation sector was well
received. The World Bank was also requested to support this additional
funding window to Government of India to reward the States which
have taken up implementation of the sector reform projects satisfactorily.
The representatives of the World Bank informed the Minister that
such innovative ideas are still in the discussion stage and will
certainly take shape in the near future.
A 5-member delegation led by Mr. Ted MacDonald
of the USA Environment Protection Agency and Asia Environment
of USA Partnership Programme, called on Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu
on 7th May, 2002 and discussed water quality issues,
specifically the arsenic problem of West Bengal. The delegation
displayed its interest to undertake studies on arsenic mitigation
in India and extend support to the National Resource Centre on
Arsenic Mitigation to be set up in Kolkata.
