More funds to be used for development of 117 districts from across 28 states.
New delhi: The Niti Aayog has asked the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to increase the 60% CSR expenditure cap and redirect more funds for the aspirational districts of 28 states of the country that are still underdeveloped, sources have said.
In December 2018, the Department of Public Enterprises had notified rules mandating 60% of CSR allocation of CPSEs under health, nutrition and education to be spent on projects in aspirational districts.
A meeting in this regard was held here this month where the Niti Aayog conveyed that CPSEs should remove the 60% CSR expenditure bar for aspirational districts and come up with increased funds. Funds are needed to reform 117 aspirational districts identified under the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP).
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018, the ADP aims to impart all-round development to underdeveloped districts of the country at a rapid pace. The Niti Aayog has identified 117 such underdeveloped districts from across 28 states. The core principles of the programme are: Convergence (of Central and state schemes), Collaboration (among citizens and functionaries of Central and state governments, including district teams), and Competition among districts. Driven primarily by the states, this initiative focuses on the strengths of each district, and prioritises the attainable outcomes for immediate improvement.
According to the Niti Aayog, the intention behind its proposal is to pool more CSR funds from the CPSEs and use them in three key areas, including health, education and nutrition in all the aspirational districts to improve the status of the people living there. These districts have already charted out a substantive action plan under the supervision of the Niti Aayog. Also, a part of the programme has already been rolled out and 81 data-points are tracked on a regular basis through a dashboard (web portal) centrally located at the Niti Aayog.
Sujata Aggrawal, who is associated with the Aspirational Districts Programme said: “The ADP initiative is based on a modern way of imparting rapid development in rural and semi-rural districts. Action plans are made in a way that takes count of human development as its core value system. The ADP focuses on five main themes—Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure, which have direct bearing on the quality of life and economic productivity of citizens.”
The first performance results of the aspirational districts were released in June 2018 and revealed that out of total 22 poorly performing districts under the ADP, nine districts are from Bihar. The districts of Bihar which have not shown any improvement under the ADP include Muzaffarpur, Purnia, Sheikhpura, Katihar, Nawada, Jamui, Banka, Khagaria, Begusarai.
“If you see the results in totality, the districts that are under the ADP have responded well and have shown a tremendous improvement in terms of overall development. For example, on the nutrition and health indices, Raichur of Karnataka, Bijapur of Chhattisgarh, Chitrakoot of Uttar Pradesh, West Distrct of Sikkim and Khunti of Jharkhand have made their names to top performing districts’ list. I am confident that the ADP is going to reform our districts silently,” Aggrawal said.
The Niti Aayog has come up with a new proposal of providing extra funds to the districts that show improvement on the parameters decided by the Aayog.