Under Modi, govt backtracks, underfunds 71.9% of central schemes: Report
An investigative report found budgetary allocations for central sector schemes grandly announced by Modi government gradually get whittled down to almost less than half of what was promised
The Prime Minister may go blue in the face yelling from poll campaign platforms about the power of 'Modi ki Guarantee’. But, in reality, Modi's government’s promises may never see the light of day as it has happened in the case of funding central sector schemes under his tenure.
According to an investigative article by The Reporter's Collective, the big budgetary allocations for central sector schemes grandly announced by the Modi government gradually get whittled down over the years to almost less than half of what was promised.
Cutbacks in pension scheme allocation
Take this case. In July 2019, the Narendra Modi-led Union government had made a budgetary pledge in Parliament to spend ₹750 crore in the first year of the Pradhan Mantri Karam Yogi Maan Dhan, a pension scheme for three crore retail traders and small shopkeepers. Under this scheme, the beneficiaries were promised a monthly pension of ₹3,000.
But, after the hype and hoopla died down, the government ended up spending only ₹155.9 crore that first year, “leaving a staggering funding gap of ₹594 crore”, said the report. What is worse is that over the next three years, spending projections dropped to small sums.
Further, the report revealed that after five years of its launch, the government, which had promised to spend ₹1,133 crore only allotted a tiny sum of ₹162 crore – just 14 per cent of the promised amount. The scheme had just over 50,000 takers till January 2023, said official data.
Why pension scheme failed?
When the government was pulled up by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in March 2023 for the failure of the pension scheme, it blamed another pension scheme with a similar sounding name.
According to the government, people mixed up Pradhan Mantri Karam Yogi Maan Dhan with another pension scheme called Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan Dhan launched just four months ago. This Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan Dhan, which was to potentially cover 42 crore unorganised sector workers actually only served 43 lakh in three years. There is also the Atal Pension Yojana launched in 2015 for unorganised sector workers, which according to the report, also has a 'dubious' record since banks were forcibly enrolling citizens in this scheme to allegedlty pump up the number of beneficiaries.
The Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan Dhan, launched with much fanfare, was to potentially cover 42 crore unorganised sector workers. After three years, it actually only served 43 lakh
The three pension schemes may not have taken off but according to the report, it symbolises "Narendra Modi’s penchant for billboard governance" or "headline grabbing governance initiatives" that exist long enough only to lodge itself in people's minds. After which, with no media glare it gets defunded.
Underfunding schemes
The Collective has studied budgetary allocations to 906 central sector schemes that was listed by the Union government in its budgets over five years from FY 2019-2020 to FY 2023-24.
Their purpose was to learn how much the Modi government spent on them. And this is what they found: the government had underfunded 651 or 71.9 per cent of the 906 schemes. Welfare schemes faced the worst budget cut, pointed out the report, adding that at least 75 per cent of the welfare schemes got less money than what the government had promised.
Notably, the next major area the government cut back funds promised in the budget were infrastructure schemes such as track renewals, roadways schemes, renewable energy grid. The government cut back for nearly 73 per cent of the infrastructure schemes in the total schemes reviewed.
