BENGALURU: Slack bureaucrats came under fire from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday as he warned them of stringent action if they fail to make full use of budgetary allocations for their departments.
Siddaramaiah, who reviewed the progress of development work and welfare programmes in all the departments, expressed displeasure at the poor utilisation of funds in many key departments like Social Welfare and Rural Drinking Water Supply.
He instructed officials to pull up their socks and ensure full utilisation of funds in the remaining four months (December to March) of the current financial year. He wanted the heads of each department to prepare action plans for speedy implementation of programmes. Siddaramaiah asked Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee to strictly monitor the progress and said that secretaries of the departments concerned would be held responsible for any failure to utilise the funds allocated.
“The State Government has drawn up many programmes for the welfare of the poor and provided adequate funds for their implementation. It is the duty of Principal Secretaries of the departments to monitor the implementation and ensure that the lower-rung officials implement the programmes effectively. Any slackness in this regard cannot be tolerated,” the Chief Minister is reported to have said.
He instructed officials to provide power connection for borewells drilled under Ganga Kalyana programme without delay. He wanted the housing programme to pick up pace as it was found that of the 3 lakh houses to be built this year for the poor, only 1.70 lakh were completed.