States annual expenditure 100%

BHUBANESWAR: Contrary to the Centre’s allegation of non-utilisation of welfare funds, the State has made significant progress in its plan expenditure.  The annual expenditure of the State for 2010-11 was 100 per cent indicating a robust financial performance, said a senior Government officer. Having a dubious distinction of poor expenditure of Central assistance and implementation of the Centrally-sponsored programmes, a review of the plan expenditure revealed that Orissa’s achievement is much better than many other states. The annual plan outlay of the State for 2010-11 was Rs 11,000 crore as against the State Government proposal of Rs 10,200 crore to the Planning Commission. The Centre, however, finalised the outlay at Rs 11,000 crore keeping in view the rapid strides made in many sectors, including human resource development, foreign direct investment (FDI), education, infrastructure, health care and growth in business activities. Development Commissioner RN Senapati who made a review of the plan expenditure here on Thursday said rapid economic growth has been possible in the State due to timely expenditure of the plan outlay and implementation of various development and welfare programmes. While the plan outlay of the State in 2000-01 was about  Rs  2,500 crore, there was four-fold increase in 2010-11 to Rs 11,000 crore. The State has registered a 40 per cent growth in expenditure in the last financial year as against 2009-10, official sources said. This could be achieved due to continuous monitoring and introduction of cash management system in 10 large spending departments like the Rural Development, School and Mass Education, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Family Welfare, Panchayati Raj, Agriculture, Women and Child Development, Water Resources and Higher Education, said Finance secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra. Plan expenditure of the State during the first quarter of 2011-12 has witnessed two-fold increase over last year, he said. Against total expenditure of  Rs  865.27 crore during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, the expenditure in the current financial year is Rs 1,841.62 crore.“This positive trend has boosted the morale of the Government departments and they have started looking forward to greater achievements in the current year,” Senapati said. The Development Commissioner, while congratulating the well performed departments, urged them all to gear up the machinery for delivering targeted services to people.