New Delhi: The Modi government will be spending Rs 100 crore this fiscal to improve governance and enhance the quality of life of people living in 500 of the most backward and poorest blocks of the country, as part of the ambitious Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP), senior officials from federal think tank Niti Aayog said Saturday.
The Niti Aayog is implementing the ABP in 329 districts of the country. A three-year timeframe has been set for improving socio-economic indicators in five major areas — health and nutrition, education, agriculture, drinking water and sanitation, financial inclusion, basic infrastructure and overall social development — Aayog officials said.
“The Rs 100 crore that has been earmarked for this fiscal will go mostly for giving incentives to the blocks that are quick to bring improvement by converging existing schemes of the Centre across the various socio-economic indicators, defining outcomes and monitoring results on a constant basis,” one of the officials, who did not want to be named, said.
The ABP programme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January, takes off from the Aspirational Districts Programme that was launched in 2018 to improve living standards in 117 of the most under-developed districts across India.
With the Aspirational Districts Programme completing five years, the Centre identified 500 of the poorest blocks to launch the ABP. A block is a subdivision of a district. In all, there are 7,000 blocks in the country. One-third of the blocks under the ABP fall in districts covered under the Aspirational Districts Programmes while 217 blocks have been identified in new districts, the official quoted earlier said.
On Saturday morning, Modi inaugurated a week-long programme for Aspirational Blocks called ‘Sankalp Saptaah’ in the national capital, which is being attended by around 3,000 panchayat- and block-level people’s representatives and functionaries from across the country.
In addition to the Aspirational Blocks Programme, the government is also focusing on urban areas through initiatives like the Aspirational Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) programme, which aims to enhance municipal governance and infrastructure.
The PM also launched the ABP portal. Addressing the gathering, he said the Aspirational District Programme has transformed the lives of about 25 crore people in 112 districts. “The success of this programme became the basis of the ABP,” he said.
Maximum poorest blocks in UP
Of the 500 blocks, the maximum, 68, are in Uttar Pradesh, followed by 61 in Bihar, 42 in Madhya Pradesh, 34 in Jharkhand and 29 in Odisha, according to a Niti Aayog document.
The ABP will support blocks to develop their development strategy, which will factor in block-specific challenges and opportunities. Blocks would identify key interventions across all the sectors of the ABP that could help achieve saturation of services and surpass the state average on key socio-economic parameters.
All the blocks will be ranked every quarter, based on their performance. The financial incentives to blocks will also be given on a quarterly basis. A total of nine core sectors have been identified and relevant 11 central ministries and departments would see to it that blocks achieve the desired results in partnership with the respective state governments.
“Special focus would be given to 60 blocks in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, which are inhabited by vulnerable tribal groups,” the Niti Aayog official quoted earlier said.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also read: Railways’ massive Dedicated Freight Corridor nears completion 2 decades later — why it’s a big deal