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Opposition members in the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs have questioned the under-utilisation of funds and the alleged high rate of crime against women and children in the national capital. Headed by BJP MP Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, the committee met on Thursday and Friday to examine the demands for grants for 2025-26 of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). According to a source, MPs from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) raised in the meeting the issue of the Nirbhaya Fund being underutilised and said almost two-thirds of the fund had not been used. The MHA uses the Nirbhaya Fund to implement projects that make cities safer for women. The TMC MPs also said the government should give an explanation on the increase in the allocation for border infrastructure and management which has been allocated Rs 5,597.25 crore in this Budget, an increase of Rs 1,840.74 crore from Rs 3,756.51 crore allocated last year. They alleged that the Census activities were slow and the budgeta
Jharkhand chief secretary Alka Tiwari on Friday instructed state departments to promptly submit utilisation certificates to the Centre for funds received under the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI) scheme. She said submitting the certificates on time would strengthen the state's claim to remaining funds and demonstrate its commitment to financial discipline. Tiwari was reviewing the scheme with the secretaries of the departments concerned. Notably, the Centre provides interest-free loans to states for 50 years under SASCI. For the financial year 2023-24, the state was allocated Rs 5,255.14 crore by the Centre, with Rs 4,580.62 crore already received, according to an official communique. For 2024-25 fiscal, the state has proposed Rs 4,302 crore, with Rs 2,763 crore approved and Rs 1,233 crore received so far. Additionally, the state is eligible for an extra Rs 1,250 crore under the scheme, the statement added. "If work is done according to the guidelines o
Alternate investment funds (AIFs) have sought from the government specific funds for investments in new-age, sunrise and deep-tech startups with a view to promote innovation in the country, an official said. They have also urged the government to announce a fresh round of funds under the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) scheme. These demands were raised during a meeting between AIFs and the officials of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) here last week. The department held discussions with AIFs on ways to promote funding for startups in the country, the official said. "In the meeting AIFs demanded more funds under FFS. They demanded an increase in the duration of FFS from the existing 12 years," the official added. At present FFS is sector agnostic. The AIFs have suggested specific funds for the sunrise and new-age sectors. Issues like capital mobilisation and promoting funding for startups in smaller cities were also discussed during the meeting.
The total voluntary contribution to the PM CARES Fund fell to Rs 912 crore in the fiscal year 2022-23, its lowest since the public charitable trust was created in March 2020 following the COVID-19 outbreak. A study of the audited statements on the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund website shows that the voluntary contribution peaked at Rs 7,184 crore in 2020-21 and then fell to Rs 1,938 crore in 2021-22, before declining further in 2022-23 as the Covid threat receded after 2021. The fiscal 2022-23 is the last year for which the statement is available on the website. Foreign contribution has seen a sharper decline, registering a high of Rs 495 crore in 2020-21, before falling to Rs 40 crore and Rs 2.57 crore in the next two years. The total expenditure in 2022-23 was around Rs 439 crore, with Rs 346 crore of it used by the "PM Cares for Children", a government initiative to support children who lost both of their parents, legal ..
A Parliamentary panel on Tuesday criticised the fisheries ministry for under-utilisation of funds allocated in the Budget and asked it to address the issue. "...the reasons for under-utilisation continue to remain the same," the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing said in its third report submitted to Parliament. The under-utilisation of funds continues even after more than three years of putting in place a new financial system by the Ministry of Finance, it said. The committee recommended the Department of Fisheries make "serious efforts" and "proactively liaise" with state governments and state fisheries departments to address this issue for positive results. The committee noted that targeted and effective implementation of the department's schemes becomes imperative for the socio-economic upliftment of the fishermen in general and traditional fishermen in particular. "It, therefore, becomes all the more necessary that the Budget allocation fo