Over the last 3 years, more than half the centrally sponsored schemes have been discontinued/ rationalized. Examine the impact of these measures.

A continued reduction in the number of schemes by the government under various ministries has been observed in the last few years. Over 50% of Central government sponsored schemes have been either discontinued, subsumed, redesigned or rationalized into other schemes over the past three years.

Reduction of government schemes under different ministries:

• Ministry of women and child development – only three schemes remain out of 19 schemes, i.e. Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.
• Ministry agriculture and farmers’ welfare – Three schemes remain out of 20 schemes, including Krishonnati Yojana, Integrated scheme on agricultural cooperatives and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
• Ministry of animal husbandry and dairy – Only two schemes remaining out of 12.
• Around 1.2 lakh crore of funds reserved for central government sponsored schemes is lying unutilized in the banks.

Impacts:

• Impact on farmers as fertilizer subsidies have declined by 35%.
• The allocation for MGNREGA went down by approximately 25%.
• Only 39,000 crore were spent on Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan against an allotted budget of 50,000 crore.
• The salaries of ASHA workers have been delayed.
• The funding for wildlife habitat development and project Tiger have been declined.

Reasons behind rationalization:

• Recommendations of the 15th finance commission to rationalize centrally sponsored schemes.
• Optimum utilization of resources for better outcomes through area specific interventions.
• Greater autonomy and fiscal space for states.
• Granting flexibility to the states for scheme implementation.

Way forward:

There is a need for debate and discussion with relevant stakeholders regarding the restructuring of the centrally sponsored schemes. Better public service delivery should be the goal rather than achieving the target of a few government schemes.