The political decision of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) State leadership to ensure mass participation in the execution of LIFE Mission projects is expected to give a major fillip to the scheme that has drawn flak for executional lapses.
The CPI(M) State secretariat and State committee that concluded the sitting here on Friday had decided to support the government in implementing the housing projects under the Livelihood, Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) Mission with an enhanced public involvement, as successfully experimented in the People’s Plan Campaign and literacy movement.
A focussed political intervention would help address the complaints that local self-government institutions are being deprived of their role in beneficiary selection and implementation and help extricate the projects from the alleged bureaucratic stranglehold.
The political decision would stir up elected members of the local bodies to expedite the process and clear the roadblocks in the implementation stage.
Complaints
Local Administration Department sources told The Hindu that complaints of a centralised approach in project execution -- that too by the bureaucratic top brass -- should be addressed first. Though the beneficiary lists for similar schemes drawn up by the local bodies and other agencies had to face criticism for duplication and favouritism, the political intervention would help to weed out such complaints.
Moreover, the elected members could be held responsible for such lapses too.
Imponderables are too many for the scheme.
As per the 2011 Census, the decadal population growth, during 2001-2011, is 4.5%, but the growth of families in the State has been pegged at 19%. Which means successive governments will have to earmark a substantial sum to meet the housing needs of the growing families to achieve the target to provide houses for all in the State. The increase in families gets automatically reflected in the list of beneficiaries and weeding out the ineligible is a tough task, sources said.
Indecision
Indecision in fixing the area of dwellings constructed under the scheme needs to be addressed soon. An active involvement of the political leadership is expected to clear such hassles. Moreover, mobilisation of people would be more easy too.
Since the government does not have much time ahead of local body elections due next year, fast-tracking of the scheme is its priority too, sources said.
