Why in the news?
The Parliamentary panel on Social Justice and Empowerment has highlighted slow pace of implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAAGY).
About PMAAGY
- Vision: Aims to achieve integrated development of 36,428 villages with more than 500 tribal populations and 50% or more ST persons in them.
- It is a revamped version of the Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme (2017), under which funds were provided to the States with notified STs for the development and welfare of tribal people.
- Objectives:
- Preparation of Village Development Plans.
- Maximizing the benefit of the schemes of the Centre and States to the Scheduled Population.
- Improving the infrastructure in vital sectors like health, education, connectivity and livelihood.
- Ministry: Ministry of Tribal Affairs
- Convergence: Converges with 58 schemes of the Centre and the States that have Schedule Tribe Component to bridge various gaps.
Challenges in the implementation of the Scheme
- Delay in allocation of funds: In 2 years of its implementation funds have been released only for less than 40% of the number of villages approved.
- Lack of a fixed time limit: There is no time limit fixed for the integrated development of each village.
- Low rate of approval of Village development plans: Only 24% of the villages identified under the Integrated Plan were approved by the Project Appraisal Committee in 2 years.
- Lack of implementation guidelines/Standard Operating Procedure (SOP): The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is yet to come up with a clear implementation guideline to streamline the process.
- Lack of Specific data: The specific data on the population of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in several States/UTs is not available.
Way forward
- Lay down guidelines/SOPs: Clear guidelines concerning the integrated development of tribal villages along with a specified time limit.
- As a corollary, standardise Village Development Plans to reduce the delays in approval and fund allocation.
- Review the criteria for selection of villages: Steps can be taken to include villages that have less than 50% ST population for a more holistic and inclusive implementation of the scheme.
- Monitoring of the implementation: Necessary support systems need to be created at the District/Division level to help the Project Monitoring Unit in coordination with the District Level Committee.
- Creation and maintenance of a reliable database: The database related to the status of PVTGs in various states and implemented development plans can be maintained centrally by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
