Date:02/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/02/stories/2005010205190800.htm

National

Panel pulls up Water Ministry

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, JAN. 1. A parliamentary panel has pulled up the Water Resources Ministry for non-utilisation of funds at the State level with the result that the Ministry could not revise its budget estimates.

It has taken a dim view of the fact that the Ministry had stated before the panel the obvious: that the expenditure on the schemes depended on the use of grants already released and the requirements projected by the States.

It has asked the Ministry to identify in three months all the projects that are likely to attain 90 per cent potential and declare them as "completed'' irrespective of the declarations of the State Governments. Flow of funds to such projects should be stopped, the Parliamentary Standing Committee chaired by R. Sambasiva Rao has suggested.

It has recommended that the Ministry evolve a "time-frame'' for use of grants, submission of utilisation certificates and completion of ongoing irrigation and Command Area Development projects to ensure effective channelisation of scarce resources for managing the available water resources.

"The admission by the Ministry that it has not been possible to upscale expenditure and consequently annual budget allocations because of lack of utilisation and demand at the State level reveals that the lesser Plan allocation at Rs. 580 crore in the Budget Estimates 2004-05 by the Planning Commission, as against Rs. 636.61 crore proposed by the Ministry was justified on similar grounds,'' the committee has observed.

The committee has also expressed its displeasure at the Ministry bemoaning lack of funds in its previous hearing in August.

It had then criticised the Planning Commission for making cuts in the Ministry's budgetary demand in the sectors of major and minor irrigation, Command Area Development and Flood Control.