New Delhi, 23 December 2021: The central government has admitted that it does not manage the record of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) money used in Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY). The fact came to light during the ongoing session of the Parliament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched SAGY on 11th October, 2014 on the birth anniversary of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Under this, each Member of Parliament was supposed to take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019. The target was later increased to five villages by 2024.
Responding to a query in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti admitted that though CSR funds are used for two rural development schemes but record of CSR money used in SAGY is not maintained by the Centre.
She said that the Ministry of Rural Development has leveraged the funds under CSR for the convergence-based schemes such as SAGY and Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) for converging private / corporate investments with the government initiatives for the development of Gram Panchayats/clusters identified under these schemes.
Though, she shared the details of expenditure incurred in the clusters of SPMRM but said that the expenditure incurred under CSR in SAGY is not maintained by this Ministry.
As per the information shared, CSR funds were spent in seven states including Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Telangana to achieve the target of SPMRM.
Coming to SAGY, its guideline talks about the resources as well which can be used to develop a particular village. According to it, resources of fully tied (conditional) schemes – centrally sponsored and State- such as Indira Gandhi Awas Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojna etc and also partially tied like Mahtma Gandhi National Rural Employ Guarantee Scheme, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna, National Rural Livelihood Mission, National Health Mission Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan etc can be used.
It also mentions other untied funds like Backward Region Grant Fund, Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme and Local Area Development Scheme of MLAs may also be tapped, subject to their consent. Along with other revenue sources, it mentions CSR funds as well.
CSR fund spent on Rural Development
In the last three years, as much as Rs 6,432 crore have been spent on rural development by the corporates under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti informed in the Lok Sabha during the ongoing parliament session that Rs 6,431.72 crore have been spent on rural development in the past three years.
She was responding to a question asked by Divya Kumari, an MP from Rajsamand parliamentary seat of Rajasthan. She asked the details of expenditure incurred on rural development under Corporate Social Responsibility during each of the last three years?
Details of expenditure incurred for the Rural Development Projects from 2017-18 to 2019-20
|
Financial Year
|
Expenditure incurred for the Rural Development Projects (In crore)
|
|
2017-18
|
1724.07
|
|
2018-19
|
2428.45
|
|
2019-20
|
2279.20
|
