With a lot of uncertainty in funds flow from the Centre, the State Government is working out a strategy as to how to cope up with such a situation.
Though the Union Government is sanctioning funds for the Central schemes and Centrally-sponsored schemes, the fund flow is not smooth, said a senior officer in the Department of Finance.
This came to light at a meeting chaired by Development Commissioner Injeti Srinivas and attended by the Secretaries of various departments.
Barring flagship programmes like the MGNREGS, PMGSY, IAY and SSA, the funds flow for other Central schemes has gone down. Finance Secretary UN Behera echoed the concern of the Secretaries of various departments in this regard.
The Secretaries feel that as uncertainty has crept in the flow of funds from the Centre, planning for a full year is adversely affected. So, it was decided that where there is demand for funds and the Central schemes are being withheld, State schemes are needed to be chipped in so that developmental projects would not suffer.
The Development Commissioner advised the Secretaries for mapping the various programmes and to rationalise the schemes in a manner so that minuscule programmes could be eliminated as major schemes would be worked out.
The Departments of Finance and Planning & Coordination would be jointly working out a strategy to revisit the State Plan and Non-Plan schemes like the Union Government which has curtailed 147 Centrally-sponsored schemes only to 66 for better coordination and monitoring.
Therefore, the State Government would go in for s major rationalisation of schemes and this would have closer association with Result Framework Document (RFD) Plan, being worked out by the State Government.
It was felt at the meeting that each department needs to run three to four flag ship programmes in the State sector, which would focus on the main objective of the department and would clearly articulate the outcomes in a time-bound manner.
Now, some of the major departments run 100 to 150 schemes and even minuscule schemes of `50 lakh to `1 crore per annum. Top officials are losing the sight of the schemes and, as a result, the delivery mechanism suffers, felt senior officials.
In the meantime, the Department of Finance has delegated more funding clearance powers to various departments, which would help the Secretaries and Ministers take financial decisions at their levels. Fund flow for a scheme to the tune of `25 crore in a Five-Year Plan period would be cleared at the Secretary level with the Minister’s approval.
More than `250 crore funding in a Five Year Plan would come to the State Cabinet for approval, said official sources. This decision would smoothen decision making in the funding process, said a senior Secretary.