19 schemes under Ministry of Women & Child Development ‘rationalised’ revamped to only 3
The Union Budget 2022-2023 has declared a major revamping / ‘rationalisation’ of centrally sponsored schemes (CSS). Since the last two years, the number of such schemes has been reduced by half.
CSSs are totally funded by the central government but implemented by states. In the Budget 2022-2023, the government allocated Rs 4,42,781.19 crore for such schemes.
According to the Budget document, 130 CSSs spanning all ministries have been “rationalised / revamped” into 65 schemes. CSSs declared after April 1, 2020 have not been included in the list.
The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development that had 19 CSSs is left with only three:
Mission Shakti has subsumed 14 schemes, including Beti Badhao, Beti Padhao, a major campaign initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Under the Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, 12 CSSs have been revamped into two schemes; three have been shut down. The two news schemes are: Infrastructure Development Fund and Development programmes (Animal Husbandry).
The three to be closed are: Dairying Through Cooperatives, National Dairy Plan-II and National Dairy Plan.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has the highest toll — 20 CSSs have been rationalised into three schemes:
The National Project on agro-forestry has been “subsumed in other CSS.” Similarly, as the Budget 2022-2023 shows, the National Project on Organic Farming has been “moved to Establishment Expenditure” even though not much detail is available.
Pruning the CSSs has been a Union government focus area in recent years. The 15th Finance Commission also recommended rationalisation of these schemes.
“We need to constitute an empowered group of domain experts to submit to the Finance Minister and Prime Minister on modalities of further and deeper rationalisation of these centrally sponsored schemes,” NK Singh, who chaired the commission, told a meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry recently. There were 211 CSSs, he had pointed out.
Prime Minister Modi in March, 2015 constituted a sub-group of chief ministers on rationalisation of CSS. Its recommendations seem to have influenced the process underway for the last four years.
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