Despite vociferous demands for minority welfare from across the political spectrum, several States have not utilised as much as Rs1,863.20 crore in this head till the fag end of the 12th five-year plan.
As against Rs2,357.79 crore released by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) to States and Union Territories for minority welfare since 2011-12 till the end of 2014, some States have reported an expenditure of only Rs494.58 crore.
An RTI query filed by The Pioneer shows that Assam, Manipur, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, J&K, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have not reported any expenditure to the Union Ministry in the last 3.5 years, despite the fact that these States were allotted Rs248 crore during the five-year-period.
The progress report also shows that West Bengal, which was allotted Rs933.22 crore, spent barely Rs295.97 crore, while Uttar Pradesh which received the second highest allocation of Rs623.20 crore, submitted a utilisation certificate of Rs123.99 crore. Bihar received close to Rs234.83 crores, of which it spent Rs14.31 crore.
“We have not been receiving new project proposals and utilisation certificates (UCs) from the States and Union Territories. Unless the erring States send us utilisation certificates, we cannot get the actual estimate of the expense so far,” said an official from MoMA.
“We have sent several queries to the States but we are yet to get a response. We have also held several rounds of meetings with principal secretaries and secretaries of States and UTs for reviews of implementation of Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) and submission of utilisation certificates, but to no avail,” he said.
The actual expenditure incurred by MoMA under MsDP during the last three financial years (2011-12 to 2013-14) was Rs779.9 crore, Rs641.2 crore and Rs952.8 crore respectively, as against the budgetary allocations of Rs1,136 crore, Rs649.5 crore and Rs958.53 crore respectively.
Utilisation certificates from States and UTs under MsDP show that that Rs1,493.5 crore lay idle from 2011-2014. The expenditure during the first half of the current financial year (2014-15) was Rs659 crore as against the allocation of Rs1,352 crore.
“Due to poor response from States on fund utilisation, we are unsure about the progress of important schemes like the MsDP, contribution to equity of National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) and Maulana Azad National Fellowship for Minority Students,” said the official.
The financial progress report for the 11th Five-Year Plan shows that the States failed to spend Rs576 crore, while total allocation was Rs2,935.30 crore.