CURRENT AFFAIRS

Description

Government Schemes Simplified: Part 1 Overview

What is meant by the government scheme?

Government Schemes are the programmes launched by the government for improving the livelihood of the people and providing security for leading a better life. 

Types of the schemes

· Central Sector schemes: Schemes which are designed, planned and completely funded by the central government are known as central schemes. They are related to the subjects over which union government has jurisdiction as per Schedule VII.

· State Sector schemes: Schemes which are designed, planned and completely funded by the state government are known as state sector schemes 

· Centrally Sponsored Schemes: These schemes are funded partially by both the Central and State Governments. It is basically the way through which the central government helps the states run their plans financially. It is divided as:

  ®    Core of the Core Schemes: Those schemes which are for social protection and social inclusion should form the core of core and be the first charge on available funds for the National Development Agenda. For example, in the case of MGNREGA, state governments have to incur 25% material expenditure.

  ®    Core schemes: Focus of CSSs should be on schemes that comprise the National Development Agenda where the Centre and States will work together in the spirit of Team India. For core schemes, the funding pattern follows a 60:40 ratio where more of the funding comes from the central government, except in case of difficult states like North Eastern states and some special category states, where the pattern followed is more along the lines of 90:10.

  ®   Optional Schemes: The Schemes where States would be free to choose the ones they wish to implement. Funds for these schemes would be allocated to States by the Ministry of Finance as a lump sum. 

Funding Pattern:

Core Schemes:

(a) For 8 North Eastern States and 3 Himalayan States: Centre: State: 90:10

(b) For other States: Centre: State: 60:40

(c) For Union Territories (without Legislature): Centre 100% and for UTs with legislature existing funding pattern would continue.

Optional Schemes:

a) For 8 North Eastern States and 3 Himalayan States: Centre: State: 80:20

b) For other States: Centre: State: 50:50

c)  For Union Territories: (i) (without Legislature) - Centre 100%

         (ii) Union Territories with Legislature: Centre: UT:80:20

Examples of core of the core schemes

· National Social Assistance Programme

· MGNREGA or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

· Umbrella Scheme for Development of Scheduled Castes

· Umbrella Programme for Development of Scheduled Tribes

· Umbrella Scheme for Development of Minorities

· Umbrella Scheme for Development of Other Vulnerable Groups

Examples of some Core schemes

· Green Revolution

· Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna (PMKSY)

· Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna

· Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY)

· Swachch Bharat Mission (SBM)

Legal backing of CSS

CSSs have been implemented via Article 282 of the Indian Constitution. Article 282 enables the Union (as well as the states) to make discretionary grants, even beyond their respective legislative competences, for any ‘public purpose’.

The federal architecture established by the Constitution bears several layers. The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution divides legislative domains between the Centre and states through three ‘Lists’:

· List I (Union List) comprising subjects such as defence and foreign relations, over which the Centre can enact laws;

· List II (State List) comprising subjects of local and regional importance, such as police, agriculture, and public health, which are in the domain of the states;

· List III (Concurrent List) comprising subjects such as forests, economic and social planning, and education over which both the Centre as well as states can legislate. 

The enumeration of entries in the lists of the Seventh Schedule was originally deemed necessary as a means to constitutionally safeguard the autonomy of the states. Further, Articles 73 and 162 divide the executive powers of the Union and the states in line with the legislative powers.

However, the manner of distribution of powers under the Seventh Schedule, rather inevitably, creates a fiscal gap between the Centre and the states, and a consequent vertical fiscal imbalance. The Constitution, under the Seventh Schedule, assigned greater revenue-raising powers to the Union, whereas much of the expenditure responsibilities, particularly those pertaining to welfare and development of the citizens, were assigned to the states. The report of the 15th Finance Commission notes that in 2018-19, the states had only 37.3 per cent of the resources but were responsible for 62.4 per cent of the expenditure that was incurred.

To address this vertical fiscal imbalance, the Constitution’s fiscal federal architecture allows multiple channels for the flow of funds from the Centre to the states. Predominantly, intergovernmental transfers are channelled through the following routes:

·   Article 270 provides for distribution between the Union and the states of taxes and duties which are collected by the Government of India.

·  Article 275 provides for grants-in-aid to supplement the revenues of states which need assistance. Different sums may be fixed for different states based on their specific needs. For instance, grants under Article 275 have been made to Tamil Nadu for promoting the welfare of Scheduled Tribes. Grants have also been made to Nagaland and Meghalaya for welfare of vulnerable groups and communities.

·  Article 282 under which the Union or the state can make any grants for any public purpose, even if such purpose is one that lies beyond the respective legislative competence (as per the Seventh Schedule) of the Union or the state.

·While transfers under Articles 270 and 275 are based on the recommendations of the Finance Commission (established under Article 280), transfers under Article 282 are outside the Commission’s formal purview.

Parameters that makes a scheme successful

For any idea to fructify and sustain in the government, it has to be politically acceptable, socially desirable, technologically feasible, financially viable and administratively doable. 

Who executes the schemes?

The bureaucracy is an instrument through which welfare policies of the government must reach the people. Trained and skilled officers who work as permanent employees of the government are assigned the task of assisting the ministers in formulating policies and implementing these policies.

It usually starts with a government department being given ownership for the implementation of a scheme/initiative. The department in turn draws up a plan of action – who will be responsible at the district level, village level, etc, how will the funds flow from one place to another, which sections of the population will receive the benefits, how will they be tracked etc. Once the plan is in place, the department communicates the process to all citizens and thus the initiative/scheme is now in motion.

So, then what’s the problem?

·One is that the department responsible for implementation of the scheme is responsible for hundreds of other things as well, and there is no clear demarcation with respect to how much time should be allocated where.

·Second is that the head of the department is liable to be transferred at any point of time. This basically means that there is no stable leadership for the department. 

What is the solution

Review & Monitoring is process/mechanism through which a management team is able keep track of the progress, receive and provide feedback at the right time to the right person in order to further the objective. Any Review & Monitoring set up has three elements:

· Defining clear roles and responsibilities

Both the Swachh Bharat and the Smart Cities schemes were huge government projects. However, there was a key difference between them. Right from the beginning, there was clarity of thought regarding Swachh Bharat, while not many knew how ‘smart cities’ were to be defined. It was just a thought with no concrete action plan or defined targets, except perhaps the number of the cities that were to be made “smart”.

For any scheme to be successfully implemented and sustained, there is a need for clarity about what needs to be done, how it would be done, who would do it and by when would it be done?

· Monitoring of key performance indicators

Monitoring of key performance indicators helps in understanding how the initiative is progressing and consequently plan for tweaks to be made. This constant flow of data helps the top management in guiding the machinery in the right direction.

For instance, in the state of Haryana, the government has setup a 3 tier review structure for monitoring the grievances received through CM Window. CM Window is a technology based grievance redressal system of the state. By monitoring very specific metrics such as time taken for redressal of grievance, number of pending grievances in a district/department etc. the government was able to improve the redressal by several percentage points.

· Regularly reviewing progress and giving feedback

Based on the data that flows in and the objective of the initiative, the top management should also hold regular (at fixed frequency) reviews to evaluate the progress of the department and provide feedback to the officials working on the field. This is important to maintain the focus of the officials on the initiative, promote best practices and also push forward those that are lagging behind. The reviews allow for course correction, motivation and planning forward.