Govt sitting on funds for planned schemes

Four months into the financial year 2014-15, the State government has found itself staring at low utilisation of funds for the various planned schemes across certain departments.

Of the total annual plan size of Rs 66,463 crore for the present fiscal, the government has released Rs 9,196 crore to various departments till July – that is 13.8 per cent of the annual plan.

Of the amount released, Rs 4,751 crore was actually utilised (calculated till May 31, 2014) – that is 7.1 per cent of the annual plan.

Sources in the Secretariat cite the model code of conduct during the Lok Sabha polls for the low utilisation of funds. But the code was relaxed in the State on April 20, just three weeks into the financial year.

Interestingly, let alone utilisation of funds, no grants have so far been released for planned schemes of prime departments such as Infrastructure and Information Technology.

The department-wise allocation, grants released and utilised were tabled in the State Legislature recently as part of a written answer by Planning, IT and BT, Science and Technology Minister S R Patil.

The Planning department prepares the annual plan in consultation with the various departments and allocates grants for planned schemes. For instance, the Agriculture department was allocated Rs 2,955 crore under 44 heads for the financial year 2014-15, including Rs 553 crore for supply of seeds, Rs 100 crore for micro irrigation, Rs 500 crore for krishi bhagya, Rs 711 crore for integrated watershed management programme, among others.

Similarly, Rs 3,063 crore has been allotted for the Health and Family Welfare department under 117 heads, including Rs 129 crore for rural public health centres, Rs 1,234 crore for National Rural Health Mission, among others. For allocation and utilisation of funds in various major departments (see box).

None for infrastructure

The most interesting aspect, according to the document, is that not a single rupee has been released for the infrastructure department. The annual plan had earmarked Rs 634 crore for the department for various projects like development of minor airports, Bangalore gas distribution project, Tadadi sea port project, Bangalore international convention centre, cost sharing of Ramanagara-Mysore railway line doubling. But no grants have been released so far.

The Information Technology and Science and Technology department, which was allotted grants totalling Rs 192.37 crore, has drawn a blank so far.

Of the 67 new schemes announced in the budget, Government Orders for 31 have been issued so far, the document states.