Centre Fumes as Slothful States Sit on Welfare Schemes and Measures

The Centre may create new schemes to address various issues ranging from sexual harassment at workplace to child and minority welfare, but it seems the states are not interested in implementing these.
Centre Fumes as Slothful States Sit on Welfare Schemes and Measures

NEW DELHI: The Centre may create new schemes to address various issues ranging from sexual harassment at workplace to child and minority welfare, but it seems the states are not interested in implementing these.

After the Bihar Midday Meal tragedy in July 2013, where 23 village children died after eating their school meal, the Ministry of HRD had requested the state governments to develop an emergency medical plan. But even over a year later, many states are yet to prepare the plan and reports of students getting ill from eating Midday Meals continue to trickle in with the latest victims being 68 students of a municipal school in Pune on Friday.

And it is not just the MDM scheme, the Centre blames the states for not following guidelines of various Central schemes and measures such as the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act.

Despite being in power for six months, various Union ministries are still struggling to get the states onboard for proper implementation of schemes and programmes. At a recent meeting of the empowered committee for MDM, Human Resource Development minister Smriti Irani found that except Odisha, no other state has prepared an emergency medical plan. The committee decided the development of emergency medical plan by each state should be made mandatory and all the states and UTs should prepare their plan by 31st December, 2014.

Adding to their worries about the implementation of the MDM scheme are reports that food samples in various states do not meet the nutritional standards of the Scheme. NC Saxena, Commissioner Supreme Court Committee informed the empowered committee that most of the food samples in Delhi do not meet the nutritional standards of the Scheme.

Despite women’s safety becoming a national issue today, measures to protect women such as the Sexual Harassment at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, is not being implemented by many states. The Ministry of Women and Child Development recently wrote to all states to ensure that Local Complaint Committee (LCC) at district level and Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) are formed at the earliest.

As far as implementation of Central Schemes is concerned, Central Ministries complain of delay in sending utilization certificates by the state governments. The Minority Affairs Ministry blames state governments for delay in utilisation of funds meant for implementing multi-sectoral development programmes for the welfare of minorities. In a reply in parliament last week, Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, said as of September 30, 2014, an amount of Rs 2,427.44 crore remains under various stages of utilisation with various state governments under the multi-sectoral development programme.

While budget estimates under this scheme in 2012-13 were Rs 999 crore, the actual expenditure was Rs 786 crore. Similarly, in 2013-14, budget estimates were Rs 1,250 crore and the actual expenditure was Rs 953 crore.

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