Not just law and order but even the welfare schemes introduced by the Centre seem to be badly hit in Nandigram which falls under the East Midnapur district.The district has performed rather poorly in the execution of the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), a scheme funded by the Center but implemented by the state Government. According to the official statistics available with the Union Rural Development Ministry, East Midnapur is one of six worst performing districts in the state where the state machinery has failed to meet the target of providing IAY houses to the rural poor. In the first six months of the current financial year, the state Government has been able to provide only 740 IAY houses as against the total target of 9,412 houses, which is not even 8 per cent of the total target. In fact, East Midnapur also features in the list of worst performing districts in terms of upgradation of houses for rural poor.As against a total target of upgrading 2,353 houses of rural poor, the state Government has barely managed to upgrade 336 houses, which is less than 15 per cent of the total target even as over seven months of the current fiscal have already passed. In contrast, in West Midnapur district, which was part of the erstwhile Midnapur district till 2002, the state Government’s performance is well on track with more than 50 per cent houses already been provided by the first half of the current fiscal. East Midnapur’s poor performance holds significance as it averages to 7 per cent as against the overall 21 per cent performance of the state. However, East Midnapur is not the only district in West Bengal with its performance in welfare schemes in single digit. Bankura with 4.79 per cent, Cooch Behar with 3.17 per cent, Hoogly with 2.04 per cent, Murshidabad with 7.30 per cent and Siliguri with 6.80 per cent are the other districts making it to the list of top six districts with worst performance in welfare schemes implementation. East Midnapur’s performance has remained dismal even in the implementation of Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY). It is among the nine worst performers, with an average much below the overall average of the state. Similar is the case with the execution of UPA Government’s National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme. It was introduced in East Midnapur in the second phase that is the beginning of April 2007. However, even after seven months, the district has managed to spend even less than 2 per cent to the total fund of Rs 160 crore allotted to it.
