BHUBANESWAR: With the state government planning to place a supplementary budget of over Rs 20,000 crore three months ahead of the winter session, the BJP questioned the need for additional funds even as the bulk of Rs 2.30 lakh crore of the budget for the current financial year remains unutilised.
“There is absolutely no need for supplementary provision when the expenditure of the state government in the first quarter of this fiscal is only 14.63 per cent and the fund use till the end of August was 28.37 per cent,” state BJP spokesperson and former MLA Ramaranjan Baliarsingh told media persons here on Wednesday.
He said additional requirement of funds are needed for the completion of important ongoing projects under the state sector, central sector centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) and new CSS schemes launched by the Centre. The focus of the state government in the budget for 2023-24 was on poverty reduction, development farming sector, drinking water supply and women empowerment. However, the expenditure under the four sectors is less than 16 per cent.
The Centre had given Rs 5,280 crore from the 15th Finance Commission (2020 to 2025) and Rs 3,328 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission for tap water supply to 88 lakh households of the state. Safe drinking water supply has been ensured to less than 40 lakh households even as funds are not a constraint, he said.
It has been a trend in the state for more than a decade that only 30 to 35 per cent of the total budget was utilised while the remaining funds were used only in the last quarter of every financial year. The rush for expenditure during the last three months has resulted in misutilisation of funds and opened a floodgate of corruption. This is going on despite repeated reminders by the Finance department to stop such practices, the BJP leader said.
On the recent cabinet approval for the purchase of 1,000 new buses under the Location Accessible Multi-modal Initiative scheme which would cost the state around Rs 3,178 crore, Baliarsingh said more than 500 buses procured under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) are rusting away.