NGO coalition slams UPA Govt's performance in report card

New Delhi, May 24 (UNI) Debunking the UPA government's claims on performance, a coalition of civil society organisations today brought a report, severely indicting the Government for failing to honour its promises made in the National Common Minimum Programme (CMP) even after completing three years in office.

The groups, which have come together for the 'Wada Na Todo Abhiyan' said the Government has failed to keep its commitments in education, health, employment and security with resources or clear accountability.

Terming the CMP as a ''bundle of paradoxes'', the national convenor of the coalition, Mr Amitabh Behar admitted while on one hand, the government had taken a few positive measures such as the Right to Information Act, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Recognition of Forest Rights Act, on the other it was diluting the progressive initiatives by encouraging SEZs, which are more meant to ''fill pockets'' of the private players, by taking away the rights of the farmers.

In her budget analysis, Ms Yamini Mishra, member, Committee of Feminist Economists, Planning Commission and support of the campaign, showed that UPA must go beyond some high-profile schemes and 'feel-good' financial allocations.

''In education for instance, the UPA has used the education cess as a substitute for increasing allocations. However, the Government's own contribution to education has declined from 68 per cent in 2001 to 35 percent in 2007,'' she explained at a conference here.

She also pointed out that India's spending on education at 3.3 per cent of the GDP was even Ethopia (4.6 per cent).

In the rural employment scheme that started in February last year, only 55 percent of the funds have been utilised and a total of 39 days of work generated on average in 250 districts, the report stated.

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