14. Backward Regions Grant Fund: Is the Allocation Justified?

The Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) was an Indian government programme designed to ‘address regional imbalances in development.’ The scheme, launched in 2007, supplemented other development programmes. It had two objectives. The first was to bridge critical gaps in local infrastructure and other development requirements that the existing inflows failed to meet. The other was to strengthen the Panchayat- and Municipality-level governance with participatory planning, decision-making, implementation and monitoring at the Panchayat and Municipality levels to address the local-felt needs. Our work takes a critical look at the allocation of funds under BRGF based on official data. We have selected the district of Adilabad, a particular backward district, for our study. Adilabad was part of Andhra Pradesh during the BRGF period. However, it came under the newly constructed state of Telangana in 2014. We examine the criteria taken for the fund's distribution, and an alternate criterion is suggested for any such future programmes.