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makes a comparison year-wise deposits and year-wise corpus allocations. It
is necessary to clarify that yearly deposits are not directly linked to annual
corpuses. Even so, a broad indication does suggest that the RIDF deposits have
lagged behind the intended contributions of banks to the RIDF Corpuses. For
some years (2008-09 and 2009-10, for instance), the gap had been filled by
making banks contribute to the rural roads component of the Bharat Nirman
Programme.
Projects, Sanctions and Disbursements under RIDF
A detailed review of the nature of utilization of RIDF funds is beyond
the scope of this study. However, impliedly one of the crucial objectives of
RIDF was to bring about better infrastructural development “for increasing
the productivity and efficiency of agriculture in the form of improving credit
absorbing capacity, enhancing the productivity of crops and livestock, generating
employment and increasing farmers’ income” (NABARD 2012, p.39). Apart
from a more balanced distribution of investment across sectors, RIDF also
aims at a better regional distribution of investible funds. Therefore, a brief
review of the distribution of RIDF funds across sectors and states is presented
in this section.
As depicted earlier, since the inception of RIDF in 1995-96, 18 tranches
have been implemented as of March 31, 2013. Initially, under RIDF I, only
ongoing projects of irrigation, flood protection and watershed management
were to be financed adopting the “last mile approach” to complete projects
delayed on account of budgetary constraints. This was followed by financing
also rural road and bridge projects under RIDF II. The subsequent tranches
gradually broad-based the coverage. By the time RIDF XII was reached, as many
as 31 broad activities had been approved by the Government for financing
under the scheme, which is the position at present. These 31 activities broadly
cover (i) irrigation and other agriculture, (ii) roads and bridges, (iii) social
sector, and (iv) power. A cumulative picture of all projects under RIDF I to XVII
is presented in Table 6.8. As shown therein, cumulatively, 4,62,229 projects
have been sanctioned since the RIDF’s inception and these have involved an
amount of
`
142,471 crore. Of this total, irrigation, power and other agriculture
have accounted for over 42% of the cumulative sanction amount; another 40%
are accounted for by ‘roads and bridges’ and 15% by social sector projects.
A broad picture presented in Table 6.7 suggests that the percentages of
disbursed amount have considerably improved over the phased amounts.
