NEW DELHI, Jan 8: The Home Ministry will soon approach the Union Cabinet for its approval for direct control of a special development scheme which was being implemented in the worst Naxal-hit districts by the erstwhile Planning Commission.
Official sources said papers are being prepared by the Home Ministry for presentation before the Cabinet for complete take over of the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) as the Planning Commission is not any longer in existence and NITI Aayog has come into being in its place.
IAP is being implemented in 88 selected tribal and backward Maoist-affected districts since 2010. Various development schemes like construction of roads, bridges, school buildings, providing drinking water facilities to rural population, besides sanitation and electric works, are being being carried out through it.
IAP is an integral part of the Centre’s two-pronged strategy of police action and development initiative to deal with the country’s biggest security challenge. IAP was under the erstwhile Planning Commission.
Each district is allocated Rs 30 crore per year under IAP for accelerated development of the affected areas. A three- member committee comprising the District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and District Forest Officer allocates the funds.
The committee identifies the projects to be undertaken from the funds granted under the scheme. But monitoring of the scheme and its implementation was being done by the Planning Commission.
In its note prepared for the Cabinet, the Home Ministry wants to make IAP more flexible while implementing it, besides wider consultations with stake holders.
“IAP is a successful programme. It has been able to achieve the desired goal. We want to continue it with more funds,” a source said.
The Home Ministry now wants to identify backward areas block-wise as not all blocks of a particular district are affected by the Naxal menace and not all areas are underdeveloped.
“Our target is focused attention on most backward regions,” the source said.
The Centre has released Rs 7,538 crore since 2010 under the scheme to the states out of which Rs 6,906 crore has been spent. Out of 1.47 lakh development projects which were sanctioned and 1.4 lakh projects where work was taken up, the states have already completed 1.14 lakh such projects, clocking an 81 per cent completion rate as far as the number of physical projects are concerned.
Areas under nearly 300 police stations in nine states are considered to be the worst-affected by the Maoist violence. The states are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
The Central Government has deployed nearly one lakh personnel of paramilitary forces in these affected states to deal with the rebels. (PTI)
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