As the financial year 2013-14 is nearing its end and the Budget session of the Assembly is scheduled to begin from next week, the state government has not been able to spend more than 31.59 per cent of the total budget outlay. Total expenditure of departments like Civil Aviation, Housing and Revenue and land Reform however, still remains to be zero per cent. Though the departmental heads have their own explanation, the opposition calls it an outcome of an ineffective government.
“We are ready with our plans and estimates but since the Government has declared the Civil Aviation Authority as illegal citing that it had not been constituted through an act, the money allocated for the construction of runways and purchase of chopper remains unused,” said Additional Chief Secretary of Civil Aviation Sajal Chakraverty. Out of plan outlay of Rs 12 crore for the Civil Aviation department – Rs 4.5 crore for infrastructure and Rs 7 crore for the purchase of new chopper for the state, it has not been able to place orders for the chopper due to the lackluster attitude of the government, added Chakraverty.
Government calling the Civil Aviation Authority illegal, said that a Society should be formed transferring all the property and liabilities of the Authority to the Society as soon as it gets registered. But in a review done by the Public Accounts Committee, it was recommended that the Authority should directly be converted into Corporation which has not yet been done, he said. “Money is there, estimate is there, department is there then let the work be done by the department itself – If you want to do work, you will have to take decisions,” he said. One should not wait for the corporation to come up, he added.
Opposition however, calls it a sign of ineffective governance. “This shows unproductive attitude of this government which has completely engaged itself in the transfer-posting industry leading to such inefficiency. Earlier, there used to be the session of 22 days which has not shrunk to 13 days by this government,” said former Speaker and Ranchi MlA CP Singh. Similar reasons were given Revenue and land Reforms department Principal Secretary JB Tubid. “Since the process could not be completed last year the fund has not been released by the Government of India so far but this time we have completed the process and expect to spend about 60 per cent of the total budget,” said Tubid.
“Out of a total budget of Rs 50 crore, Rs 37 crore is meant for National land Records Management Programme (NlRMP). Moreover, the process needed to start land survey was stated after I came in and a workshop was also organized by the department where experts were called to take decision to do scientific survey involving both scientific and traditional means, taking into consideration the diverse geographical condition of the state,” added Tubid.
The hurdles have been removed and we expect that we will be able to spend at least 60 percent of the budget allocation for the department, added Tubid. According to the official data available with the planning department, other departments recording lowest expenditure of their budget allocation includes Transport department with mere 4.79 percent, Planning department with 5.18 per cent and Mines and Geology with 9.61 per cent while Rural Works and Drinking Water department recorded the maximum of 77.06 and 56.46 per cent.