In a sharp contrast with popular narrative, flagship Central schemes have made some headway in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir during the last five years.
Even though there has been a view that major Central schemes were not being implemented in Jammu and Kashmir which enjoyed special status till last month, available government data reveals that the performance has been improving over the years.
The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojan has been making steady progress since inception in 2015, with increase in small business loans year-on-year. For instance, during 2015-16, the sanctioned amount was a modest ₹1,185 crore. It grew to ₹3,404 crore during 2018-19. The number of beneficiaries increased to 1,33,078 from 59,974. In the current financial year, the Mudra loans sanction has already touched ₹1,400 crore.
Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojan (PMJAY), which is implementing health insurance under Ayushman Bharat, is also under way. Out of 21,26,937 families, 6,13,697 have been identified as eligible under the scheme and 29 per cent of the families have been reaping the benefits. The claims submitted so far are for about ₹8.78 crore till May 2019. The access to the scheme is through 126 public and 33 private hospitals.
The Centre’s pet scheme for financial inclusion, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), has 1.72 crore beneficiaries with a total balance of ₹940 crore in Jan Dhan accounts. “Compared to Mudra and PMJAY, this no-frills basic bank account scheme, however, appears to be a little slow. But the number of beneficiaries is reasonably good in terms of proportion of population. The balance in these accounts has, however, been fluctuating as per banks’ data,” said a senior functionary of a public sector bank.
Now that the Centre is administering J&K directly, it remains to be seen how it impacts the implementation of schemes of Government of India.
“Going by these numbers, I do not see J&K lagging in execution of these flagship schemes during the last five years. So, the question is whether development, including small businesses aided by Mudra loans, will go up in the new regime,’’ said an economist with a leading business school.
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