Women make incense sticks (agarbattis) in Gaya. Picture by Suman

Patna, Nov. 21: The Bihar government is all set to have its first brush with habitation-based planning for implementing the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), which entails expenditure of a little over Rs 9,200 crore in the next 10 years for ameliorating the economic condition of 1.25 crore below poverty line (BPL) families.

In a bid to extend benefits of the government schemes to every beneficiary, the state government had pleaded for a shift from the revenue village-based planning to habitation-based planning during the regional consultation of Planning Commission in May this year. While the number of revenue villages in Bihar is just 44,874, the number of habitations (total) is estimated to be more than a lakh.

“The chief minister gave us the directive to make habitations as the basic unit for implementing all the schemes to be taken up under the NRLM so that the scheme could cover all the deserving people,” rural development minister Nitish Mishra told The Telegraph. The rural development department is responsible for the implementation of the NRLM.

The Centre and the state would share the cost of the scheme to be taken up under the NRLM on a ratio of 75:25.

To ensure participation of each BPL family in the scheme, the NRLM entails constituting over 10 lakh self-help groups during the course of its implementation. Initial capitalisation funds would be given to groups under the project.

The NRLM also entails providing funds targeted at reducing the health and food related vulnerability and to promote livelihood activities under the community investment funds head.

Giving details of the NRLM implementation plan in Bihar, Mishra said instead of launching the project throughout the state at one go, the department had decided to implement it in phases. It would be launched in just 55 blocks of the state in the first year and would be rolled out to other blocks in successive years. All the 534 blocks would be brought under its ambit by the end of 2014-15. These details have been mentioned in the State Perspective and Implementation Plan (SPIP) of Bihar for implementing the NRLM. According to the norms of NRLM, every state has to prepare a SPIP.

“We have worked out a detailed SPIP and to ensure that the works under the NRLM are carried out professionally, we have incorporated details which talk of setting up institutional framework right up to the block-level for taking up works under the NRLM. Professionally qualified people would be deputed right up to the block-level for carrying them out,” said the minister.

Prior to adopting the habitation-based approach, revenue villages used to taken up as the basic unit for implementing the government schemes. The state government, however, is of the opinion that while taking revenue village as the planning unit, the primary focus remains on the mainland of the village and the habitations in the periphery, which generally comprises weaker sections, remain deprived of the benefit of such schemes.

Nitish had put forward the same logic in the meeting of National Development Council in October. While referring to the problems being faced in effective implementation of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) in Bihar, he had pleaded for a shift from the village-based connectivity to the habitation-based connectivity and complete coverage of the habitation under the RGGVY so that no one felt left out as far as extending benefits of the scheme was concerned.