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Achieve target, officials told

Bangalore Bureau

Chief Minister unhappy with only 40 p.c. utilisation of budgeted funds

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

STERN MESSAGE: Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa addressing a review meeting in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Tuesday expressed concern that on an average only 40 per cent of the allocated funds in the State Budget for 2008-09 had been spent on various development projects and welfare schemes till October end.

Addressing a review meeting with senior officials in Bangalore on Tuesday, the Chief Minister expressed dissatisfaction over the slow rate of implementation of budgetary schemes by various departments.

He issued stern directions to top-ranking officials to achieve the target set for this financial year. He reminded the officials that only about four-and-a-half months were left in this fiscal year.

He said the Government had taken up various budgetary programmes which would have a positive impact on the lives of people. “People will trust us only when the budgetary programmes are effectively implemented,” he said.

While Minor Irrigation, Water Resources, Health and Family Welfare, Education, Medical Education and Public Departments spent 50 to 70 per cent of the budgetary allocations, the other departments showed only 30 per cent to 40 per cent progress. The State budget was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on July 17.

The Chief Minister said the Food and Civil Supplies Department had been asked to issue biometric bar-coded ration cards for all eligible below poverty line beneficiaries before the year-end. These laminated cards would be issued to every household by the Food and Civil Supplies Department in order to ensure transparency and accountability in the public distribution system (PDS), he added.

About Rs. 6 crore would be sanctioned for implementing development works such as roads and drinking water in Gulbarga.

President Pratibha Patil and the Tibetan Buddhist religious leader, the Dalai Lama, would be visiting Gulbarga in January 2009. The President would inaugurate on January 7 the Buddha Vihara built by the Siddhartha Vihara Trust at a cost of around Rs. 4 crore on the outskirts of Gulbarga. It was decided to cover an additional 1,000 villages in the State under the Suvarna Gramodaya Scheme. Already, 1,185 villages had been covered under the scheme. The Cabinet meeting held in Gulbarga had decided to include 200 villages.

On repair of rural rods, Mr. Yeddyurappa said a separate meeting of the departments of Public Works and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj would be convened and they would be instructed to complete the projects before commencement of the monsoon.

Following decline in the prices of iron ore, he asked the officials to re-negotiate the pricing issue with bicycle manufacturers so that the distribution of bicycles would start. The Government had been distributing bicycles to students of VIII standard in government and aided schools.

The Government had decided to provide Rs. 1,000 to small and marginal farmers dependent on dry land farming.

So far, 19 lakh farmers had been identified under the scheme and funds would be disbursed to them in two weeks, the Chief Minister said.

Mr. Yeddyurappa instructed the officials to finalise a list of progressive farmers for a study tour to China and Israel. Stating that disposal of petitions received during the Janaspandana programme needed to be speeded up, he said and added that of 4,63,592 petitions received, 1,53,940 had been settled.

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