Five deptts fail to spend even a single rupee.
Even as the Orissa government is putting in place an ambitious 'Cash Management System' from 2010-11 to avoid the rush in expenditure of funds in the last quarter and ensure timely spending of budgetary outlays, the performance of various departments on the plan expenditure front has been woeful in the first quarter of the fiscal.
Only 7.96 per cent of the total plan allocation has been spent by the 34 departments in the April-June period of the current financial year as against the stipulated norm of 15 per cent for the first quarter of any fiscal.
Out of the total plan outlay of Rs 10,200 crore for 2010-11, only Rs 811.99 crore has been spent by these departments, said Planning and Coordination minister A U Singh Deo.
The performance of departments like general administration, cooperation, law, public enterprises and revenue and disaster management has been particularly dismal as these departments have not been able to spend even a single rupee in the April-June quarter.
Similarly, the expenditure by departments like energy, industries, school and mass education, tourism and culture, transport, women and child development, labour and employment and health and family welfare leaves a lot to be desired as these departments have incurred less than two per cent of the expenditure in the said period.
“Most departments have not been able to spend the prescribed norm of expenditure (15 per cent) under the State Plan during the first quarter of 2010-11. Low expenditure during the first quarter is mainly due to delay in completing the preliminary works for execution of infrastructure development projects, delay in release of Central assistance under some Centrally sponsored plan schemes and drawal of funds from treasury by the concerned executing agencies”, the minister stated.
More From This Section
It may be noted that departments like commerce, excise, information and public relations, rural development, ST & SC Development, water resources and works have recorded a modest performance in incurring expenditure in the first quarter.
While commerce department's expenditure has been to the tune of 9.81 per cent, it has been 8.5 per cent for excise, 7.84 per cent fr information and public relations, 7.12 per cent for rural development, 8.33 per cent for ST & SC Development, 8.08 per cent for water resources and 12.38 per cent for works department.
The departments of Panchayati Raj, agriculture and higher educations have posted a stellar performance with an expenditure of 25.64 per cent, 22.67 per cent and 21.49 per cent respectively.
The Panchayati Raj department spent Rs 219.58 crore out of the overall budgetary allocation of Rs 856.26 crore while the agriculture department incurred an expenditure of Rs 77.67 crore out of the allocated amount of Rs 342.68 crore.
The higher education department spent Rs 18.37 crore out of the budgetary provision of Rs 85.50 crore.