BHUBANESWAR: Even as crime against women increased in Odisha by around 4,000 cases in 2019 compared to the previous year, utilisation of Nirbhaya fund by the State Government during the period was one of the lowest in the country.
Facts about the utilisation of Nirbhaya fund came to the fore in replies to two unstarred questions in the Lok Sabha by Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani during the recently held session in Parliament.
The Minister said out of the Rs 60.78 crore released by the Centre under the Nirbhaya Fund in 2020, the Odisha Government has utilised only Rs 15.15 crore, less than even 25 per cent. Several states including Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were way ahead in utilisation of the fund compared to Odisha.
Replying to a unstarred question in the Lok Sabha on November 11, 2019, the Minister had said that Odisha had submitted utilisation certificate for only Rs 58 lakh out of Rs 22.7 crore received from the fund. The reply revealed that though Rs 5.4 crore was released by the department of Justice, the State Government had not utilised the money. Similarly, Rs 10.38 crore was released to the State under the one stop Centre scheme. However, the utilisation was only Rs 54.46 lakh.
The Minister, however, said that under the universalisation of women helpline scheme, the Odisha Government utilised Rs 140.64 lakh out of the Rs 191.76 lakh released from the Fund.The Nirbhaya Fund was established by the Centre for supporting projects specifically designed to improve the safety and security of women.
The corpus fund is non-lapsable, administered by the department of economic affairs of the Finance Ministry. She said in order to facilitate states to undertake efficient and timely investigation of sexual assault cases, 14,590 sexual assault evidence collection (SAEC) kits were provided by the Centre for use in such cases at a total cost of Rs 2.97 crore. Odisha had received 513 kits, she said.
The Minister said that under the Nirbhaya fund, proposed projects submitted by the states should have features like direct impact on safety and security concerns of women, optimum use of existing infrastructure, innovative use of technology and provision for real time intervention.