Zilla panchayat members, irrespective of their party affiliations, aired out their anger in one way or the other against the officials for not utilising the funds released for taking up developmental and welfare activities. The issue was raised in the 16th General Body meeting held at the Zilla Pachayat Conference Hall here on Wednesday.
BJP’s Vishwanath Patil, a member, said that nearly Rs. 50 core remained unused and was lying in various banks.
‘No action plans’
“Without proper action plans and approvals, zilla panchayat officials have transferred heavy amounts to implementing agencies and forgotten about it.
The agencies who were supposed to implement the projects and programmes have just deposited the funds in the banks. The officials never monitored as to whether or not the funds were properly utilised. As a result, over Rs. 50 crore remain unutilised,” he said. In one of the cases, he added, Rs. 3 crore is lying unused in a bank account of an implementing agency.
“In some cases, funds released under various schemes and programmes continue to remain unutilised even after those schemes and programmes get expired,” Danappa Alkod, another member, said. He held officials responsible for ZP’s failure to utilise funds.
To a member’s question, the Chief Planning Officer admitted that Rs. 75 lakh from Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme was transferred to Land Army’s account eight months ago and there was little progress of projects.
Vishwanath Patil, Aslam Pasha and other members urged the Chief Executive Officer Richard Vincent D’Souza to ensure the transfer of funds only after proper approval of action plans.
