Over Rs 400 crore disbursed to 85 aspirational districts so far

Government has disbursed approximately Rs 401.55 crores as of March 2021 to 85 aspirational districts since the inception of the Aspirational District Programme in January 2018, minister of state for planning Rao Inderjit Singh said on Wednesday.

“Every month, districts are assessed on the basis of monthly progress and the best performing districts, in overall terms and in each of the five sectors under focus in this programme, are identified and granted additional allocation as per their performance,” the minister said in response to a question in Lok Sabha.

“Under this arrangement, as of March 2021, a total of approximately Rs 401.55 crores has been disbursed to 85 aspirational districts since the inception of the programme,” he said.


However, only in two districts, namely Nandurbar in Maharashtra and Palamu in Jharkhand, about Rs 5.79 crore and Rs 0.32 crore, respectively, are pending for disbursal, he informed.

Under the programme, 112 aspirational districts are ranked on a monthly basis depending on their performance across the key performance indicators identified under the programme. The first and second rankers in overall terms are awarded Rs 10 crore and Rs 5 crores respectively while the first ranker from each of the five sectors is awarded Rs 3 crores each.

Based on their eligibility, the districts are asked to formulate projects to be put up for approval before the empowered committee of secretaries. Subsequently, funds are released to the district. Ordinarily, these projects are small, and the amounts are disbursed subsequent to their being sanctioned, the minister added.