The parliamentary standing committee on human resource development has said that the utilisation of the allocation for these important schemes presented a dismal picture about their performance.

“Under-utilisation of allocation means that there are some shortcomings and bottlenecks in the delivery mechanism, as a result, the resources are perhaps not being managed optimally,” the committee said in its report, which was submitted to the Lok Sabha.

Hike in allocation

Even though there has been a significant increase in the allocation for the Department of Women and Child Welfare for the year 2008-09 utilisation of funds in some crucial schemes was not satisfactory. In the current financial year, Rs 10 crore has been allocated for the scheme.

Out of Rs five crore allocated for hostels for working women only Rs 0.92 crore was spent till January 2008 and Rs 20 crore has been allocated for 2008-09. The committee observed that unspent balances with the state governments particularly, in respect of the Centrally sponsored schemes like ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) and Swayamsidha as on December 31, 2007 were to the tune of Rs 162.02 crore and Rs 21.95 crore respectively

A state-wise analysis revealed that under ICDS, some states have negative balances, i.e. the amount of reimbursement to be released by the Central government as the next installment. Karnataka has unspent funds of Rs 36.34 crore as on December 31, 2007.