The State government has extended the Special Development Plan (SDP) to address regional imbalances as per the recommendations of the D.M. Nanjundappa committee for five years and sanctioned an additional Rs. 5,300 crore funds.
The project, which was supposed to end in 2015, has now been extended to 2020, Venkatrao Y. Ghorpade, chairman of the committee to review the implementation of the committee recommendations, said here recently.
Of the additional funds, Rs. 2,300 crore was sanctioned last year and Rs. 3,000 crore had been sanctioned this year, he said.
He was speaking at a meeting to review SDP works in the zilla panchayat. He expressed satisfaction that in most districts, including Bidar, nearly 90 per cent of the funds were spent on creating assets or training.
According to him, successive governments had released Rs. 11,272 crore for various works under the SDP since 2007.
Of this, Rs. 10,338 crore (91.71 per cent) was spent till now. “This has made a definite difference to the lives of 114 backward taluks as identified by the committee,” Mr. Ghorpade said.
He however expressed displeasure that most of the work done, using the funds, remains unknown to public representatives and the officers concerned.
“For example, Rs. 26 crore was used to build an annexure in the Kalaburagi district hospital. This fact had remained unnoticed by MLAs and even zilla panchayat officials. We should not allow such things to happen. Line department officials are free to draw money from the SDP funds, but they should keep concerned officials informed about it,” he said.
Public representatives and officials should regularly review SDP works, the chairman added.
He clarified that SDP funds could be used for any “reasonable development plan” that is approved by the State government.
He asked officials to maintain transparency by putting up boards with details of the money spent and works done in each work site.
In Bidar, SDP works had received Rs. 451 crore in the last eight years. Of these, Rs. 402 crore, (89 per cent) was spent on various projects. “This is not a disappointing performance. But we should aim for 100 per cent spending,” he said. He asked officials to streamline accounts related to SDP works and submit accounts in a standard format to the committee in a month.
