GUWAHATI, Feb 21 � Though the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was shown a few houses constructed under the much talked about Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP) for minority concentration districts of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government during his recent visit to Assam, the implementation of the programme in the State is one of the worst among all the states of the country.
The Minority Affairs Ministry of the Government of India has prepared a detailed report of the physical progress of implementation of the programme as on December 31 last year and the performance of Assam along with the other states of the region turned out to be not at all satisfactory. Interestingly, at a time when the Government of Assam has been claiming that it was doing its best for the people belonging to the minority communities, the report exposed the fact that the State has not been able even to ensure proper implementation of a Centrally sponsored project.
According to the report, the target for Assam under the MSDP as on December 31 last year was to construct 76,490 Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) houses, but the State could construct only 3,307 of those. However, the report said that the physical achievement was reflected for completed units only and the work in progress was not included in the same.
The physical implementation of other projects under the programme in Assam was even worse. The report revealed that the target as on December 31 was to complete 98 schemes under the Health Department but none of the schemes could be completed. The State was given a target for completing 1617 new Anganwadi Centres and not a single could be completed within the stipulated period. The MSDP envisages solar lights to the poor people and the target for the State was to provide 9905 solar lanterns and lights but not a single was provided during the stipulated time frame.
The report revealed that the State was given a target of installing 4579 hand tube wells and 2160 of those could be installed for providing safe drinking water to the people living in the backward areas. Of the target of adding 1683 class rooms to the schools of the Minority concentration areas, only 265 could be completed within the stipulated period, while, not a single of the toilets in schools could be completed though the target was to complete 136 by December last year.
The physical implementation status of other North East States like Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh is even worse than that of Assam, but it is slightly better in Manipur, the report said.
