Governments — whatever their political hue — have always known that India's growth story crucially depends on improving rural India. The reason is simple: more people live there, most of them do not have electricity connections, nor other amenities like clean drinking water, housing or roads. It was not surprising then that prime minister Manmohan Singh-led UPA government worked out the Bharat Nirman component of its national minimum common programme to improve the lot of the villagers. Singh and his reform-minded colleagues and friends rightly saw that public expenditure in rural infrastructure is a key to transforming India from a developing to a developed country, and accelerating the economic growth rate. 

But good intentions do not always translate into good results. At the end of its term, the UPA's record on the Bharat Nirman front has not met its targets on many counts. The shortfall is more in some areas than in others. For example, in the case of rural electrification, only 13.8 per cent of the target, including households below poverty line, was met. In the case of irrigation, the achievement was 50 per cent — 5 million hectares instead of the targeted 10 (mha). It is slightly better with regard to rural water supply — 4.64 lakh habitations were covered instead of 6.04 lakh. No wonder, Singh is unhappy with the report card.

The issue of growth in village India goes beyond political rivalries. It does not matter who does better than the other as long as some work is done. The BJP-led NDA can derive satisfaction from the failures of UPA government and use it as political fodder in the coming Lok Sabha election. But that does not help. The questions are of more basic concern to the country as a whole, even, and especially for, those who do not live in village India.

There is always the question of leakage of funds allocated. But here, money was allocated but has not been spent-this reflects nothing short of inefficiency. The much-vaunted platform of aam aadmi means nothing if the performance is perfunctory. 

This is a weak, Achilles heel of this government and it will have to answer to this failure in the elections. The work in the rural sector has to be accomplished, by whatever means — private, public, public-private. The government cannot take credit for economic growth or rural upliftment if it has done poorly on this account.

DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication