UPA report card: PM gives cautious pat on back, lists challenges

Presenting his govt`s report card, PM hailed the performance of economy while sounding a note of caution for the year ahead.

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: Presenting his government`s
report on completion of first year, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh today vowed to fight terrorism "root and branch" and
enforce the writ of the State in dealing with naxalism and
political extremism.

Making it clear that he was "conscious of the tremendous
challenges" lying ahead, he said the government will seek "new
frontiers and new directions" to strengthen social and
economic foundations during the remaining tenure of four
years.

`The Report to the People -- 2009-10`, which was
unveiled by Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi,
highlighted 12 major themes of the government`s priority.

These cover areas like economic resurgence, internal
security, education, health, child rights, food security,
empowerment of women, weaker sections and minorities, rural
renewal and foreign relations.
Naxalism & extremism

Government`s determined to fight terrorism
"root and branch" and deal with Naxalism "firmly" while
addressing developmental issues.

State governments deal with various issues related to
LWE in their states. The Central government supplements their
efforts in several ways, it said.

The report said an amount of Rs 668.61 crore has been
released during 2009-10 under the schemes for Modernisation of
Police Forces (Rs 578.61 crore), Security Related Expenditure
(Rs 60 crore) and Special Infrastructure Scheme (Rs 30 crore)
to left wing extremism affected states.

A sum of Rs 1230 crore has been released to all the
states for modernisation of state police forces, the report
said.

Government would fight the
scourge of communalism and "political extremism".

Defence & security

"An integrated and synergistic approach has been adopted
by involving the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Intelligence,
Custom, State Marine Police, and other central and state
agencies in meeting this challenge," the report said.

Two mountain divisions
to safeguard the North-Eastern borders and setting up of the
second Officers Training Academy (OTA) at Gaya in Bihar
approved.

The modernisation of Rashtriya Rifles was also approved to
improve the counter insurgency grid in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Another area being accorded high priority is the
development of roads and infrastructure in the high altitude
areas," it added.

It said during 2009-10, construction of 210 km of
fencing, 310 km of border roads and 400 km of floodlighting
was completed along the India-Bangladesh border. Construction
of 50 border out-posts has also commenced.

The report said the government has decided to induct the
Indo-Russian joint collaboration `BrahMos` supersonic cruise
missile system, with precision strike capability against land
targets. Akash surface-to-air missile system capable of
multi-target handling, was also being inducted.

To improve the living conditions of the troops, 48,470
family dwelling units were constructed under the Married
Accommodation Project (MAP).

The government accepted a high-powered
committee`s recommendation to improve welfare and it benefited
12 lakh personnel and an Armed Forces Tribunal was established
to provide an appellate forum to aggrieved personnel.

Inflation

The PM said "one of the major problems that we face at
present is the pressure on prices" which he attributed to the
large extent to the aftermath of the drought.

Allocation to state governments under the open market sales scheme (domestic) for release of 20 lakh tonnes of wheat was made between October 2009 to March 2010 to improve supply.

Prices of rice and wheat was maintained to protect the
poor. PM added that there are enough food grains to
intervene in the market to keep the prices at reasonable
level.

Other measures: a selective ban on exports and futures
trading in food grains, zero import duty on select food items
and removal of restrictions on licensing, he said.

We will continue to monitor the situation very carefully, and
take whatever corrective steps are necessary to rein in
inflation," Singh said.
Rural development

Government said it remains committed to
ensuring "inclusive growth" by improving rural infrastructure
in a "comprehensive manner" through the second phase (2009-10
to 2014-15) of Bharat Nirman.

"Efforts are being continued to provide electricity, safe
drinking water, all weather roads, telephones and broadband
connectivity to all eligible villages or habitations and
substantially augment rural housing stock and irrigation
potential," it added.

Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has provided nearly 600 crore
person-days of work at a total expenditure of around Rs 70,000
crore since its inception in 2006, government said.

Singh said, "Of the projects sanctioned under the JNNURM so far, an investment of around Rs 36,000 crore is devoted to the programmes for basic services to urban poor and development of slums."

The UPA-II aims to make the country slum-free in the next five years under the Rajiv Awas Yojana for slum dwellers. "Construction of around 1.5 million houses for the poor and slum dwellers has been approved," the report card states.

Women empowerment

Women`s
Reservation Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha and
personnel policies made more "gender sensitive".

UPA government has set up the
National Mission for Empowerment of Women in March this year
to secure inter-sectoral convergence of all pro-women or women
centric programmes cutting across ministries and departments,
states and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).

The government has decided to enhance the corpus of the
Rashtriya Mahila Kosh to Rs 500 crore from the existing Rs
100 crore.

To promote girls` education, government has started a scheme for the establishment and management separate hostels for them in the educationally backward blocks. During 2009-10, approval has been given to set up 379 such hostels in 11 states.
Roads & highways

The government today said it will
construct 7,000 km of national highways per year, a view
that runs contrary to that of the Planning Commission, which
favours a lower annual target of 2,500 km for this fiscal.

While Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath has been
reiterating that the ministry will construct 20 km of highways
every day, the Planning Commission recently set an annual
target of 2,500 km for 2010-11.

Climate change

Launch of National Action Plan on
Climate Change, the passage of a bill for early disposal of
environmental cases and unlocking of Rs 9,900 crore green fund
lying unused for last several years, were the highlights of
the UPA government.

The "Report to the People" on the environment sector talks about the eight
missions of the NAPCC of which solar mission has already been
launched.

Three others namely Himalayan Ecosystem, Strategic
Knowledge on Climate Change and Enhanced Energy Efficiency
have already been approved "in principle".

On the green fund, it said, states have been asked to
set up panels on Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management &
Planning Authorities (CAMPA) for enabling release of 10 per
cent of the Rs 9,900 crores for the next five years.

One of the major achievement on the green front was the
passage of the National Green Tribunal Bill, 2009, providing
for establishment of a tribunal for effective and expeditious
disposal of cases relating to environmental protection,
conservation of forests and other natural resources.

Northeast development

Singh said development of road and rail
network and improving air connectivity to the Northeast have
been the priority area for the UPA government to ensure
overall growth in the region.

"Guwahati and Agartala are already connected. Projects
for connecting the capitals of Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and
Arunachal Pradesh have been taken up," the report said.

About air connectivity, the government said one
greenfield airport at Pakyong in Sikkim was already under
construction involving a cost of Rs 264 crore.

On road improving road network, the government said about
596 km of road length has been completed in last one year in
the region.

Giving details on improving security in the region, the
government said a regional coordination mechanism, covering
all the Northeastern states, for gathering, analysing and
disseminating intelligence has been set up at Shillong and has
been operationalised with effect from February 23.

Formation works along a length of 35.89 km and
surfacing works along a length of 11.2 km were completed on 11
roads along the India-China border.

Electricity

"Four more reactors are under advanced stages of
construction and on completion will take the installed
capacity to 7280 MWe by 2011," said the report.

Singh noted that with the commissioning of the Rajasthan
Atomic Power Station Units 5 and 6 during the year, the total
installed capacity of nuclear power has reached 4560 MWe.

Government announced
that it would commission four hydro power projects in Jammu
and Kashmir this year.

About the rural electrification, it said, that in the
last fiscal, against a target of 17,500 un-electrified
villages, 18,374 villages have been electrified under the
Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

The report also boasted that against a target of 47 lakh
below poverty line (BPL) household connections, 47.18 lakh BPL
households have been given free electricity connections.

Minority welfare

Prime Minister`s new 15-point
programme for ensuring targeted development to minorities and
the government`s thrust on improving their education status
find mention in the UPA-II report card to people.

Special
development plans for the 90 minority concentrated districts
(MCDs) as major steps in this regard.

Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh said 60 ITIs, located in the MCDs are to be
upgraded as part of the new 15-point programme.

Singh has also referred to the recent passage of a bill
to amend the Waqf Act, 1995 on May 7 by Lok Sabha that
provides for penal provisions to prevent encroachment of waqf
properties, representation of women in the waqf boards and
greater accountability and efficiency in the administration of
waqf properties by the waqf boards.

The report said three new schemes have been added to the
Prime Minister`s new 15-point programme in 2009-10.

He said that 17.29 lakh scholarships were given to
children belonging to the minority communities for their
pre-matriculation studies. 48 per cent of these are pre-matric
scholarships on which an amount of Rs 202.94 crore was spent
were awarded to girls.

Under the post-matric scholarship scheme, 3.88 lakh
scholarships were awarded at a cost of Rs 148.74 crore and
nearly 55 per cent of the beneficiaries were girls.

Minorities were provided over Rs 96,000 crore of bank
credit while 502 public sector bank branches were opened in
districts with a substantial minority population.

Education

The UPA government has opened nearly 20,000 elementary schools across the country after it came to power last May.

According to a report card, released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, 19,247 primary and upper primary schools have been opened in 2009-10 till December end.

These facilities include 7,400 primary schools and 11,847 upper primary schools. Over 35,000 teachers have been appointed in this period and 9,708 additional classrooms constructed.

Similarly, 26.62 lakh teachers have been provided in-service training and 9.54 crore children given textbooks, the report said.

Government has launched Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan with the objective of improving access to secondary education. Clearance has been given for setting up of 2,478 new schools and improving 6,998 existing schools under the scheme, it said.

Judicial reforms

The Government is making efforts to
cut down pendency of cases from the present 15 years to just
three years.

Government has decided to set
up a national mission for delivery of justice and legal
reforms.

The government has accepted the recommendations of the
13th Finance Commission for providing Rs 5000 crore to the
states to set up morning and evening courts, promoting
alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and providing more
allocation for legal aid to the needy.

Government has implemented the
Gram Nyayalaya Act on October 2 last year to enable setting up
of over 500 rural courts at the grass-roots level for delivery
of quick and affordable justice to people at their doorsteps.

-Agencies inputs