AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi has thrown up an interesting idea — to examine if implementation of the UPA’s flagship social sector programmes could be outsourced to private entities on a commission basis. This is because of his conviction that less than 15 per cent of funds allocated under Central schemes actually reach the real beneficiaries now.
Over two decades back his late father Rajiv Gandhi, then India’s Prime Minister, had openly said that around 15 paise of every rupee allocated by the Centre actually reached those for whom the money was intended.
Mr Rahul Gandhi shared his innovative idea with members of the newly-constituted National Advisory Council, headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. An NAC member who sought anonymity told this newspaper: “After the first meeting of the council, we had a session with Mr Gandhi, where we discussed issues pertaining to implementation of all the cherished pro-poor schemes. All of us agreed that there are many bottlenecks leading to leakages in delivering goods to the people through government agencies.”
Taking the discussion forward, he said, the young Mr Gandhi floated an idea which set many members thinking. “The idea was to consider outsourcing implementation of pro-poor schemes to private business groups on a commission basis.” Mr Gandhi favoured giving some concessions to private participants on the lines of the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model, he added.
“He argued that if public infrastructure projects can be executed by private corporates on the basis of concessions, why can’t social sector schemes of the government be given to them on a commission of 15 per cent of the total allocated funds for each scheme. His intention is to see that the maximum amount reaches the beneficiaries,” the member said.
Another member who was part of the deliberations, however, said that while the idea might be “noble” and “innovative”, it was bound to face resistance from the state apparatus, which now implements the schemes. “Lakhs of officials are involved in the process with their vested interests. It has to be seen if the politics of the day would allow this idea to become a reality,” he said. “However, we can enter into a debate on the issue, dissecting the pros and cons of handing over implementation of schemes to private entities.”