When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses over 500 project directors of District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA) tomorrow, he will underline the UPA’s promise to provide a new deal to the rural population in the Eleventh Plan. But the truth is that the DRDAs, the nodal agencies in the districts to implement rural development programmes, are not in a position to meet most commitments because they are short-staffed — 43 per cent positions, on an average, are vacant across the country and it’s 70 per cent when it comes to key decision-making Group A posts.

The DRDAs are meant to be professional agencies in each district to manage all anti-poverty programmes of the Centre and state governments. These agencies are entrusted with providing necessary executive and technical support to coordinate with different departments, Panchayati Raj institutions, banks and other financial institutions, NGOs as well as technical institutions, ensuring financial discipline and poverty-eradication efforts by governments in each district.

Under the existing arrangement, administrative expenses of DRDAs are shared on a 75:25 ratio between the Centre and state governments. The Union Ministry for Rural Development has outlined an optimal and appropriate staffing structure and personnel policy to make DRDAs effective in implementing anti-poverty programmes in each district.

But new data with the Ministry show some 43 per cent posts are still to be filled in DRDAs across the country. This is just an average, inter-state variations ranging from a high 67 per cent vacancy in Punjab DRDAs to 13 per cent vacancy in Orissa. While 10 states have more than 50 per cent positions vacant, only five states — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Orissa and Manipur — have less than 30 per cent vacancy in their DRDAs.

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