Keep tabs on use of central funds: Cong

PM asks Chidambaram to look into 'irregularities'.

The Congress has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set up a mechanism to keep tabs on the utilisation of funds given to states under different Central schemes.

The demand came from AICC General Secretary and party in-charge of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh V Narayanswami, who met the prime minister recently and told him about the alleged non-utilisation and misuse of Central funds by these two Opposition-ruled states.

The prime minister is learnt to have assured the Congress leader that he will ask Finance Minister P Chidambaram to look into it.

According to Narayanswami, Orissa government is yet to spend Rs 3,000 crore under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana, Rs 168 crore for development of rural industries and Rs 163 crore under a central watershed development scheme.

"It's already January and the Orissa government has spent only 39 per cent of the money given by the government of India under various schemes. How is it possible to spend the remaining 61 per cent in the next two months? There are many complaints regarding utilisation of funds in Madhya Pradesh also. The Centre has to be vigilant," he said.

"We have, therefore, demanded a foolproof monitoring mechanism to ensure that Centre's money is fully and properly spent. He (PM) was very positive about it," Narayanswami told Business Standard.

He said in Orissa's KBK districts (Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput), the number of people below poverty line is increasing despite huge funds being sanctioned under Central schemes. "The state government has to be answerable for all this," he said.

He said there were similar problems in Madhya Pradesh. The state government "misused" the funds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, he said, adding that the real beneficiaries were government officials and not those for whom the scheme was meant. He said at many places, officials used machines to do the work, which was not the purpose behind the scheme.

Around Rs 300 crore was given to the state as flood relief for several districts last year, he said. "There were gross irregularities in the distribution of compensation to the affected people," according to the senior Congress leader.