With the Central Government facing financial crunch, release of funds to Odisha has gone down drastically and the State Government is left in a worried state.
Even Centrally-Sponsored Scheme (CSS) funding, which was earlier released in time is not being released by the Union Government, admitted a senior official in Department of finance.
While in 2018-19 the total funds release under CSS was Rs 12,342 crore, till date Odisha has received only Rs 4,824 crore after completion of six months in fiscal 2019-20.
Serious financial crisis looms large in the State as CSS funding has been scaled down and release of funds is almost stalled, officials admit.
The Chief Resident Commissioner (CRC) Office is pursuing release of funds under CSS regularly with various Ministries, but insiders admit that the Union Government is also facing shortage of resources.
At least 40 Central schemes are being implemented in the State and low release of funds for the schemes is hampering implementation of the programmes, admit officials.
While officials in the Ministries are raising issues of Utilisation Certificate( UC), the CRC Office is regularly updating with UCs and trying hard on a mission mode for release of funds by various Ministries.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy recently while reviewing sanction of funds and release of the sanctioned amount discussed the issues at length.
Major flagship programmes like MGNREGS, PMGSY, MDM, SSA, NHM and RKVY are facing serious funds crunch.
Take for example, on MGNREGS count by September 30, Odisha was supposed to get Rs 2,018 crore, however, the Ministry of Rural Development has released Rs 1,096 crore. Rs 922 crore towards first tranche is awaited.
Similarly prevailing unskilled wage rate in Odisha is Rs 280 per day, however in MGNREGS unskilled wage rate is Rs 188 per day. People in rural areas are not agreeing to join MGNREGS with less Rs 92.
Repeated request has gone unheeded by the Government of India and the MGNREGS is facing real hurdle in implementation.
Even recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission for release of funds under SDRF/NDRF is not adhered to and full amount is not released to the State.
The FC had recommended for release of Rs 818 crore in 2019-20 from SDRF/NDRF, however Rs 552 crore has been released leaving Rs 266 crore shortfall.
Earlier Centre-State share was 90:10 as per recommendation of FC and it has been changed midway to 75:25 by the Union Government.Hence funding has been slashed down though Odisha continues to face continuous natural calamities.
However, for super storm Fani, the Union Government has released Rs 3 114.46 crore under NDRF funding in two phases.
While the State Government is having warmest of relationship with the NDA Government, situation is just not improving, but aggravating day by day, admits the senior official.