A parliamentary panel has asked the environment ministry to focus on initiating necessary steps to avoid underutilisation of funds for pollution abatement.
The recommendation came after the ministry in its action taken report said that the reasons for underutilisation under the scheme were non-receipt of competitive proposals meeting criteria for funding, duplication of schemes in other ministries and funding being "not attractive" to investors among others.
The ministry also said that in order to address the issue of underutilisation, it has reviewed and revamped the schemes.
"The committee notes that reply of the ministry and hopes that the steps taken would help address the challenges of environmental pollution in a holistic manner.
"The ministry should also focus on initiating necessary steps to avoid underutilisation of funds," the department- related parliamentary standing committee on science and technology and environment and forest in its 308th report said.
The ministry said that it had reviewed and revamped the scheme by merging Assistance for Abatement of Pollution, CETP and Clean Technology (CT) into 'The new proposed scheme of pollution abatement'.
The ministry said that the new proposed scheme also lays emphasis on awareness, capacity building activities, demonstration projects for upcoming technologies, result oriented and time bound R&D studies for control and abatement of pollution.
"The reasons for underutilisation under the pollution abatement scheme are as under - non receipt of competitive proposals meeting criteria for funding under the scheme, duplication of schemes in other ministries
"Funding under the scheme was not attractive to investors and non receipt of utilisation of state organisations and state boards," the ministry said.
The ministry also said the during 2016-17, the scheme was under restructuring and the focus was on completion of ongoing projects which could not funded due to non-receipt of complete documents and utilisation certificates and the previous releases.
"The cumulative impact resulted in less than 50 per cent expenditure resulting in reduction of Revised Estimate (RE) 2016-17," the ministry told the panel chaired by Congress leader Anand Sharma.
The ministry in its action taken report also listed the steps taken by it along with those by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to deal with the challenges of pollution.
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