JAIPUR: The United Nations Millennium Campaign has found very little progress in Rajasthan in the performance of indicators for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 despite the lapse of nearly half of the stipulated period and noticed hardly any tangible action for removal of poverty in the desert State.

The U.N. Millennium Campaign's Deputy Director for Asia, Minar Pimple, who was here this week to review the progress of MDGs, said the figures of maternal and infant mortality ratios, concentration of poverty, and access to education and health care services in Rajasthan were "appalling'' and indicated an abysmal lack of action by the State Government.

"The facts that 440 women out of 1,000 still die due to pregnancy-related complications and there is concentration of poverty among Scheduled Castes and Tribes and Muslim minority show that there is no commitment of the State Government to the welfare of citizens,'' said Mr. Pimple.

Mr. Pimple, who interacted with the UNICEF representatives and noted economist V.S. Vyas here to get an idea of the extent of deprivation of marginalised sections, said the State had a long way to reach anywhere near the targets of MDGs, for which six years had already elapsed.

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