(a) whether the Government has decided not to release any funds to those States who have failed to set up District Planning
Committees;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the steps taken/approved to be taken by the Government to provide assistance to those States; and
(d) the total amount of funds released from Backward Region Grants Fund (BRGF) till December,2007?
MINISTER OF PANCHAYATI RAJ(SHRI MANI SHANKAR AIYAR)
(a)&(b): The Planning Commission has issued guidelines regarding district planning on 25/08/2006.The Planning Commission
takes into account compliance with these guidelines in determining allocations to Annual State Plans. As per the Ministry of
Panchayati Raj, these guidelines have also been adopted for the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) programme.Under these
guidelines, participatory grassroots level planning is considered the sine qua non for the release of grants under the BRGF.
The Panchayats and Municipalities are the implementation authorities under Programme. The plans prepared by the local
bodies are to be consolidated by the District Planning Committees (DPCs), constituted in accordance with Article 243 ZD of
the Constitution. Therefore, releases cannot be made to those districts that have not constituted DPCs.DPCs have not yet
been constituted in the States of Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
(c): Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) has been subsumed into the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) Programme.Therefore,
the BRGF Programme includes releases to the districts covered under RSVY, which have not claimed their total entitlement yet.
These States are also entitled to capacity building grant for Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Details of the releases
made to the districts in the States during the current financial year are annexed.However,constitution of District Planning
Committees (DPCs) is an essential pre condition for release of development grant under BRGF to these districts. All the
States have repeatedly been requested during Conferences, meetings and correspondence at both Ministerial and official
levels to constitute DPCs. Except Jharkhand, where elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions have not been held due to
prolonged litigation, all the States have reported some progress and it should be possible to complete the procedural
formalities to constitute the DPCs.
(d): An amount of Rs. 2965 crore was released till December 2007. Further releases have been effected in January 2008
taking the total released to Rs.3201.56 crore.