Rs 1,402 crore of Vidarbha diverted to Rest of Maharashtra?

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  

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Region         Year-wise excess/shortfall in expenditure (in Rs crore)

                     2008-09     2009-10     2010-11   2011-12     2012-13    Total

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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

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Corrections suggested by Governor for next 3 yrs

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Region                       Year-wise corrections to be made by Govt

                                       2014-15         2015-16             2016-17

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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

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