Dubai: The World Bank on September 21 lauded the performance of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and the Pulse Polio Immunisation programmes in India, saying they had contributed to development in the country's rural areas.

"As someone who has been associated with the region for a long time, I can say the performance of the Panchayati Raj Institutions have been impressive," the Chief Economist of the World Bank Nick Stern told reporters after releasing the World Development Report on "Making Services for Poor People" in Dubai.

However, the Director of the Report, S Devarajan noted that the public spending by and large in developing countries including India has been helping the rich and not reaching the poor.

While in Guinea about as much as 40 per cent of the rich gain access to the public health system and development programmes, in India too, the figure was quite close to that, Devarajan, who will soon take over as the Chief Economist of the World Bank in South Asia, said.

In some rural areas in India, people had to pay more than five times the money for getting potable water as they had no access to metered pipe water due to "political reasons", he said.

"These are all symptoms of fundamental failure of accountability", he said adding "politicians used public services as a currency of public patronage".

PTI