Post News Network
By Biswa Bhusan Mohapatra
Bhubaneswar, Dec 11: The state government is reportedly unhappy with the way the Union government is closely monitoring utilisation of Centrally-allotted funds.
Departments which are getting the lion’s share of Central funds are under constant monitoring to such an extent that it is becoming difficult to execute projects, officials aver.
In an informal talk with Orissa POST, a senior official of the housing and urban development department said, “Ever since the NDA government has come to power at the Centre, we’re facing difficulties in utilising their funds for execution of developmental projects in the state, because the Centre is seeking to micromanage affairs by comparing detailed project reports (DPR) of a specific project to actual execution of project.”
Officials say there are bound to be deviations from the DPRs during implementation, such as overshooting of budget and occasional failure to complete a certain project within the specified timeframe due to several issues at the grassroots level.
“It is highly difficult to implement exactly what has been said in the project proposal. The projects, in almost all cases, run into rough weather due to protests or other such issues, and in order to resolve them there may be deviations,” the official added.
“If we stick to each and every word of the project proposal and utilise only as much funds for the implementation of a particular section of work as was said in the DPR, no development work can take place,” the official said.
Concurring with the views of the H&UD official, an official of the employment, technical, education and training (ETET) department said, “No state government can do it (sticking to the DPR), because in most cases, officials who are drawing up the proposals are not around during the actual implementation.”
“ It is the grassroots-level officials who then face a lot of hurdles. We either have to spend more funds in order to wrap up the project in time, or sometimes overshoot the deadline in order to stick to the
allotted budget. Deviations are inevitable, and this is something the Centre needs to
understand,” the official
added.
