BHUBANESWAR: The State Government’s failure to utilise funds has come to the fore from the budget proposals and expenditure during the last two years. Though budgets with higher allocations are presented every year, the utilisation of funds has not improved in proportion, raising doubts about proper implementation of welfare programmes. The 2010-11 budget had a total outlay of Rs. 37,487 crore. But the expenditure was Rs. 33,968 crore at the end of the year. The previous year’s total utilisation of funds was also Rs. 29,051 crore against the budget estimate of Rs. 32,797 crore. The budget estimate for 2011-12 has been fixed at Rs. 44,878.97 crore. This has lent credence to the Opposition allegation that the State Government had failed to properly utilise funds earmarked for different welfare schemes. Official sources, however, maintained that the low expenditure may be for inadequate matching provision for the Centrally-sponsored programmes (CSPs) and schemes under Central plans. The expenditure for CSPs was Rs. 1,115 crore in 2010-11 as against the provision of Rs. 1,808 crore in the budget. Similarly, the expenditure under schemes in Central plans was only Rs. 650 crore as against the budget estimate of Rs. 1,093 crore. But the State Government’s performance in utilisation of funds under the State Plan is better. The State Plan outlay was fixed at Rs. 12,902 crore in 2010-11. The expenditure was Rs. 11,755 crore. The State Government was able to achieve more than 99 per cent utilisation in 2009-10. As against the outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore, the expenditure was Rs. 9,990 crore. Opposition political parties, however, alleged that announcement of schemes by the State Government from the State’s own resources has resulted in low expenditure under the Centrally-sponsored schemes. Several senior Congress leaders alleged that this had prevented the State Government from taking advantage of Central schemes. Besides, the implementation of Central schemes had also suffered because of this.
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