The Government of India (GoI) has responded to an RTI filed by The Taut on January 27, 2022, which sought to inquire about the utilisation of funds in accordance with Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) in Uttar Pradesh under the Yogi Adityanath government. The released numbers indicate under-utilisation of the funds, with a steep decline observed each year since the government came to power in 2017. The funds under this scheme are provided to the state by GoI to develop minority communities. However, if the numbers are to be believed, the total utilisation of these funds fell to zero in the last tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rule in Uttar Pradesh.
The Union Ministry for Minority Affairs (MoMA) responded to the RTI, saying that there is no provision for a fixed year-wise allocation of funds under the program and that the “eligible proposals received from the States/UTs” are the only things that direct the allocation. Another way of saying this is that the GOI decides to approve or reject project proposals made by the states one at a time.
(Courtesy: Thetaut.com)
Who benefits from the scheme?
Prior to 2018, the scheme’s focus was on the districts where minorities made up 50% or more of the total population. Later, Minority Concentration Towns (MCT), Minority Concentration Blocks (MCB) and clusters of Minority Concentration Villages (MCV) consisting of minority populations of more than 25% were also included. These MCTs, MCBs, and MCVs can be found in 43 of the state’s 75 districts.
Reduction in the utilisation of funds
Ever since the BJP government came into power in the state, there has been a steep decline in the utilisation of funds, with the numbers decreasing every year. No funds have been utilised since April 2021. The numbers are as follows:
- 2017: INR 62 crore
- 2018: INR 48 crore
- 2019: INR 39 crore
- 2020: INR 5 crore
- 2021: None
It is pertinent to look at the amount of funds unutilised for each year. The amount shot up to more than 327 crore in 2017-2018, up from 89.21 crore in the previous year. It was 122.95 crore in 2019-20, 93.23 crore in 2020-21 and 1.18 crore in 2021-22.
The Projects
As per MoMA’s response to The Taut, 9159 projects have been sanctioned by the centre since 2015 for UP. Out of which, only 5% or 476 have been completed.
Breakdown of the projects in different categories
A total of 3865 have been approved in the education sector, out of which only 187 or 4.75% have seen completion. Likewise, 27 projects have been approved in the health sector, out of which only 7, or 26%, have seen completion under the Yogi government. In the skill development sector, GoI has sanctioned 39,367 units for construction until March 2018, but only 2151 or 5.4% units were constructed.
Without being overlooked, the lack of development in this field has been highlighted in NITI (National Institute for Transforming India) Aayog’s report. For example, the report says that the Workforce Participation Rate (WPR) is lower for most minority communities than the national average due to a lack of up-gradation of skills and educational facilities. Moreover, due to a high concentration of minority communities in self-employment activities, adequate financing and credit are essential, but this has become difficult to access over the years, and the reason could be the reduced utilisation of funds under the PMJVK.
