Revamping of BGRF Scheme

November 16, 2015 admin Current Affairs, GS, GS-2 0

Revamping of BGRF Scheme

Week : [8-15 November]

A committee of chief ministers, headed by Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan, constituted by the Centre to revamp the centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) has asked the centre to review the existing arrangements in the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) scheme.

  • Union Budget 2015-16 delinked   BRGF completely from central support and was transferred to state governments.
  • They have also recommended that the new schemes be implemented until 2022.
  • The committee suggested that the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog and the Union finance ministry could recommend area-based interventions in some of the states as special packages to take care of the state component in the BRGF.  In other words, the schemes would be formalised by the NITI Aayog and the finance ministry.
  • The committee has also disagreed with the notion that the central government’s assistance to states had been reduced because of the higher devolution to states through the 14th Finance Commission.

BRGF:

Launched in 2007, the fund signifies a new approach to addressing persistent regional imbalances in rural development. The programme subsumed the Rashtriya Sama Vikas Yojana (RSVY), a scheme earlier being administered by the Planning Commission.

  • The BRGF programme represents a major shift in approach from top-down plans to participative plans prepared from the grassroots level upwards.

Under the scheme, fund is provided to:

  • Bridge critical gaps in local infrastructure and other development requirements that are not being adequately met through existing inflows.
  • Strengthen Panchayat and Municipality level governance with more appropriate capacity building.
  • Provide professional support to local bodies for planning, implementation and monitoring their plans.
  • Improve the performance and delivery of critical functions assigned to Panchayats, and counter possible efficiency and equity losses on account of inadequate local capacity.

The BRGF Programme covers 250 districts in 27 States, of which 232 districts fall under the purview of Parts IX and IX-A of the Constitution dealing with the Panchayats and the Municipalities, respectively. The remaining 18 districts are covered by other local government structures, such as Autonomous District and Regional Councils under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and state specific arrangements as in the case of Nagaland and the hill areas of Manipur.