The lone AJSU Minister Chandraprakash Chaudhary in the Raghubar Das Cabinet, holding two plum portfolios-Water Resources and Drinking Water and Sanitation- is said to be upset with the Secretaries of both the departments.
The reason, according to him, is that the report card of both the principal secretaries (Sukhdev Singh-Water Resources and A P Singh-DWSD) on spending the annual budget is poor.
The Minister has even lodged a complaint with the CM against the two officers. Significantly, the performance report of both the officers, available in the Planning & Finance department, however, belies the Minister’s assessment.
The expenditure report of the Water Resources department revealed that it has utilised `352 crore of the `2,000-crore budget till July, which happens to be the highest during the last four years. It was `152.17 crore in 2012-13, `142.54 crore in 2013-14 and `192.37 crore in the last fiscal for the same period.
Sources said that against the budget of `2,000 crore, the State has to get `1,007 crore from the Centre under Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP). The State has got only Rs 78 crore under AIBP head. It meant that the fund of `929 crore is not available with the Government.
Moreover, Rs 343.66 crore has to come as State share with respect to the Central assistance. "In all, Rs 1,147 crore is not available with the State Government for expenditure. So, out of Rs 853.05 crore available, Rs 352.58 crore i.e. 41.26 per cent has been spent in the first four months of the fiscal," sources said.
Similarly, the Drinking Water and Sanitation department has utilized Rs 158 crore out of Rs 1,228-crore budget till July. It was just Rs 5 crore during the same period last year.
A senior official said that the budget utilisation could be expedited if we go for floating and awarding tenders without applying mind to how a particular scheme could be completed and available for public. Citing an example, the official said that 70 per cent component of a water scheme involved the purchase of pipes. "So, if we go for placing order for pipes without ascertaining the source of water, we can still utilise 70 per cent of funds meant for a particular scheme, but without any result," he pointed out.
A senior bureaucrat said that it was demoralising to run down the officers instead of appreciating their 'good and rational utilisation of the budget'. Also, Principal Secretary, Finance, Amit Khare is continually working to the increase expenditure by giving quick sanction and releasing of funds at the secretarial level.
The Minister, however, was not convinced and said that the expenditure is not at all satisfactory. "The hike in expenditure is there, but we are not achieving our monthly target," he explained.
Maintaining that implementation of a number of centrally-sponsored schemes has become slow, Chaudhary pointed out that the department was not following the guidelines for expediting these projects.
He said that he has briefed the Chief Minister about it. "He has assured to hold a review meeting and take remedial measures," the Minister pointed out.
Significantly, conflict between the Ministers and bureaucrats in Jharkhand is nothing new. Successive Chief Ministers were continually embarrassed by the clashes between Ministers and bureaucrats since Jharkhand was carved out as a new State. So, the Chief Ministers, often victim of fracture mandate, often found a way out to placate them by posting a secretary of the minister's choice.
However, Chief Minister Raghubar Das, leading the first majority Government in Jharkhand, posted both the secretaries even before the two portfolios were allocated to Chaudhary, giving a strong message that he wanted result and expected no underhand dealing in the two departments.