Modi’s pet scheme, ‘Swachha Bharat’ now lacks funds!

Nearly ten months after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office, his ambitious projects meant for the betterment of the society seems to be ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’. As per a news report by The Economic Times, Modi’s much hyped Swachh Bharat scheme has suffered a budget cut of Rs 635 crore across the country for the fiscal year 2015-16.

However, this move might mean a better execution of the projects. With less funds involved and better grounding of the projects, this might mean less misuse of the funds at various levels.

Erstwhile Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh’s Integrated Child Development Scheme for undernourished children in anganwadis has also been cut by a whopping cut of Rs 9,858 crore, which is less than half of last year's budget of Rs 17,858 crore.

According to the financial daily, the Modi government has also cut funds to the Rashtirya Grameen Drinking Water Scheme that sees a slash of Rs 8,390 crore.

Even the allocation for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA) has come down drastically from Rs 9,193.75 crore last year to just Rs 2,000 crore. SSA has garnered a mounting success over the years in most parts of the country where school drop outs were on rise.
While the Congress in opposition has managed to activate the blame mode towards the ruling BJP, political experts opine that this would enhance the investment in infrastructures, agriculture and agribusiness, research and innovation, upgradation of industries, foreign investment, secondary education and vocational training .

Political analyst Harish Ramaswamy has told the financial daily that the allocations were "more practical and pragmatic" this time, as states often did not utilise the funds that were allotted to them.

(Image: India Times)