25-02-14
Governor directs ‘correction’ in region-wise expenditure
By Kartik Lokhande
Vidarbha
legislators have been accusing the Democratic Front (DF) Government for
diverting the funds meant for the region to Rest of Maharashtra (RoM).
The DF Government has been refuting it. However, an interesting piece of
information in the latest Governor’s Directives sheds a new light on
this.
In the directives for the year 2014-15 released on Tuesday, the Governor
has asked the Government to make ‘corrections’ for excess/shortfall of
expenditure from financial year 2008-09 to 2012-13. The ‘corrections’
are to be made in next three financial years -- 2014-15, 2015-16, and
2016-17.
In the earlier directives, the region-wise corrections on account of
excess/shortfall in expenditure were carried out up to the financial
year 2008-09. However, WRD had indicated that the figures of the opening
balances of the Irrigation Development Corporations as on April 1, 2009
were ‘wrongly reported’. As per the directives dated March 13, 2013,
Water Resources Department (WRD) has furnished the revised figures vide
its letter dated January 6, 2014, to the Governor. Accordingly, the
Governor has revised his directives. Interestingly, the region-wise
corrections for 2009-10 to 2012-13 have been calculated on the basis of
expenditure figures reported by WRD.
As per the figures quoted in the Governor’s Directives released on
Tuesday, between 2008-09 and 2011-12, there was a shortfall of Rs
1,856.87 crore in expenditure in Vidarbha region. With an excess
expenditure of Rs 454.65 crore in 2012-13, the overall shortfall in
these years came down to Rs 1,402.22 crore. During this period, the
total excess expenditure in Marathwada region was Rs 231.44 crore.
During the period 2008-09 and 2012-13, excess expenditure of Rs 1,170.79
crore has been reported in RoM.
Curiously, this figure matches the sum of excess/shortfall of
expenditure for Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. This creates scope for
suspicion that the amount of shortfall in expenditure in Vidarbha region
was diverted to RoM. However, the officials who did not wish to be
quoted on this tricky issue, said that ‘corrections’ actually referred
to expenditure less than the allocation. The amount of this shortfall in
expenditure was surrendered to State pool of funds. From there, funds
were allocated to RoM. According to an official, the blame lies with the
implementing agencies that did not ensure full utilisation of funds
allocated to Vidarbha. A part blame also lies with the elected
representatives who did not maintain positive pressure on the
implementing agencies for time-bound utilisation of funds, he said.
According to sources, this is nothing but a technical justification for
diversion of funds from Vidarbha to RoM. In his directives, the Governor
has been stating repeatedly that there shall be ‘no diversion of funds’
from backlog districts to non-backlog districts and from the area of
one Development Board to another, without his prior approval. To escape
the charges of diversion of funds, the Government appears to have
devised a smart ploy to get the ‘unutilised’ funds from Vidarbha region
surrendered to State pool of funds and then re-allocate it to RoM from
there.
Excess/shortfall of expenditure
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Region Year-wise excess/shortfall in expenditure (in Rs crore)
2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vidarbha -416.10 -744.98 -433.08 -262.71 454.65 -1402.22
Marathwada -127.15 -12.70 85.92 217.25 68.11 231.44
Rest of Maha 543.25 757.68 347.16 45.46 -522.76 1170.79
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections suggested by Governor for next 3 yrs
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Region Year-wise corrections to be made by Govt
2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vidarbha -Rs 467.41 cr -Rs 467.41 cr -Rs 467.41 cr
Marathwada Rs 77.15 cr Rs 77.15 cr Rs 77.15 cr
Rest of Maha Rs 390.26 cr Rs 390.26 cr Rs 390.26 cr
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments
Post a Comment