Nitish sits on money bags, cries for funds
Out of an astronomical Rs 27,365 crore only Rs 16,970 has been used till date
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar never misses an opportunity to slam the Centre for step-motherly treatment to the State and for refusing “additional financial assistance to the ‘cash-strapped’ Bihar.”
But if one goes by the official data, which has been placed on the floor of the Assembly too, the Nitish regime’s fiscal management stands exposed.
Out of an astronomical amount of Rs 27,365 crore annual Plan size, the State Government has been able to spend just Rs 6,970 crore by the end of the first two quarters of current financial year 2011-12.
If one takes into account the figures spent by November 2011, it stands to nearly Rs 10,000 crore.
This means approximately one-third of the Plan size has been spent in the first eight months of this fiscal. The remaining two-thirds, which amounts to more than Rs 17,000 crore, will have to be spent by different departments in the rest of the four months (Dec 2011 to March 2012).
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui wonders how the government will be able to spend such a whopping amount in such a short span of time.
“Will the Nitish regime indulge in some kind of magic trick to spend more than Rs 17,000 crore by the last day of this fiscal year,” said Siddiqui, who had earlier been the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
“In such a scenario, either the pressure to spend the remaining amount will lead to ‘March loot’ or the funds will have to be surrendered eventually. I wonder why Nitish, after so much of hype, got approved a Rs 27,365-crore Plan size if his government can’t take up timely execution of public work,” said Siddiqui.
The Leader of the Opposition’s angst stems from the fact that till November 2011, some departments like Industries, Commercial Taxes, Excise and Prohibition have failed to spend a single penny against its budgetary allocation.
But there are few exceptions too. The Transport, Health and Water Resources departments have been able to spend 64 %, 32 % and 31 % respectively against the fund allocated.
Similarly, only 52 per cent of the amount earmarked for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been spent so far.
“It is virtually impossible to spend the remaining amount by March 31, unless the government indulges in ‘March loot’ or parks the money in some corporations,” former president of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) Ram Jatan Sinha told Deccan Herald on Friday.
