AHMEDABAD: Gujarat recorded zero Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) fund releases in each of the five financial years from 2021-22 to 2025-26, while the state has 82 PMJVK units listed as completed since the scheme's inception.
The Ministry says PMJVK is demand-driven, with funds released against eligible proposals rather than fixed state-wise allocations. The figures, placed before the Rajya Sabha, put Gujarat at the sharp end of a striking state-wise funding gap.
The numbers turn more striking when Gujarat’s position is compared with the national picture.
According to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, PMJVK funds are released on the basis of eligible project proposals submitted by states and their fulfilment of prescribed conditions, rather than through a fixed state-wise allocation.
Five straight years of zero releases
The official state-wise fund-release table records Rs 0 crore for Gujarat in 2021-22, followed by dashes for 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26, meaning no funds were released to Gujarat under Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) during any of these five financial years.
In contrast, several other states received substantial releases during the same period. For instance, Assam received funds in 2021-22, 2024-25 and 2025-26, while Karnataka, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh also recorded sizeable releases across different years.
The Gujarat figure therefore stands at zero in the five-year state-wise release table, while the annexure records a large number of completed PMJVK units across the country.
Despite the zero releases recorded during the five years, Gujarat is listed with 82 completed PMJVK units since inception. The national total stands at 859,972 completed units. That means Gujarat's 82 completed units account for only about 0.01% of the national total. The contrast is particularly sharp with states such as West Bengal, which has 344,946 completed units, Uttar Pradesh with 201,086, and Assam with 109,798.
At the other end of the table, Nagaland has nine completed units, while Gujarat has 82, making Gujarat one of the states with the lowest recorded number of completed PMJVK units in the annexure.
The funding picture nationally: The Ministry's figures show that PMJVK's overall budget and spending have fluctuated sharply over the past five financial years.
The scheme had a Budget Estimate of Rs 1,390 crore in 2021-22, which was revised to Rs 1,199.55 crore, while actual expenditure stood at Rs 1,266.36 crore. In 2022-23, the Budget Estimate was Rs 1,650 crore, but the Revised Estimate fell to Rs 500 crore, and actual expenditure plunged to Rs 104.58 crore. Spending then stood at Rs 187.88 crore in 2023-24, rose to Rs 955.23 crore in 2024-25 and reached Rs 1,563.87 crore in 2025-26.
The state-wise Government Data shows that several states received PMJVK funds during the five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26, while Gujarat has no recorded release as per government data.
But zero recent releases do not mean zero historical projects.
The data needs one important distinction. The Ministry specifically says the state-wise release figures cover funds released since 2021-22, whereas the completed-project table covers projects completed since inception.
Therefore, the 82 completed projects in Gujarat cannot automatically be attributed to funding released during the 2021-22 to 2025-26 period. The Government Data does not provide a year-wise funding history for those 82 projects, so the available data does not establish when those Gujarat projects were funded.
No poor-quality work was flagged in third-party audits
The Ministry also stated that no instance of poor-quality work was flagged in any third-party quality assurance audit conducted under PMJVK.
Furthermore, the government said independent third-party studies were commissioned to assess implementation and impact. An evaluation was conducted by the Indian Institute of Public Administration, while the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office of NITI Aayog carried out an impact-cum-assessment study.
The studies examined infrastructure creation, service delivery, outcomes, efficiency and sustainability, while identifying areas for improvement including awareness generation, fund flow, monitoring and maintenance of assets.
Since PMJVK is demand-driven and funds are released against eligible proposals rather than through predetermined state quotas, the figures alone do not establish why Gujarat received no funds during these five years.
However, they do establish a clear data point for Gujarat: the state received no recorded PMJVK release between 2021-22 and 2025-26, while the national programme continued to fund projects across multiple states and reported 859,972 completed units since inception
