Most central ministries have returned hundreds of crores of money, unable to spend them for activities like TB and cancer control.
Most central ministries have returned hundreds of crores of money, unable to spend them for activities like TB and cancer control, mid-day meals and police reforms. So much for the aam aadmi!
According to a detailed audit of the ‘Accounts of the Union Government’ done by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) and tabled in parliament on Friday, the callousness of the ministries was outrageous. Topping the list of ministries that did not spend over Rs100 crore are health and family welfare, school education and literacy, police, law and justice urban development and water resources.
Education
School education and literacy department returned a whopping Rs2,668 crore, seven times more than what they had returned unspent last year. The HRD ministry did not deem it fit to spend even a single rupee of the allocated Rs247 crore for setting up Special Navodaya Vidyalyas. It did not award a rupee from the Rs106 crore meant for National Merit Scholarship Scheme nor a penny out of Rs1,149 crore meant for Universal Access and Quality scheme at the secondary stage.
The Centre failed to spend more than half of money meant for mid-day meal and did not even touch Rs451.8 crore for a national mission in education through information and communication technology (ICT).
Health, family welfare
The department returned Rs1467.46 crore in 2007-08, 10% of its total budget. Of Rs 116 crore allocated for cancer research, only Rs52.29 crore was spent. Not a rupee out of Rs178 crore allotted for reproductive child health drugs was spent.
Just 25% of Rs16 crore for National TB Programme was spent. Of Rs150 crore allocated for creating hospitals like Delhi’s AIIMS, only Rs 87 crore was spent. Despite health minister Anbumani Ramadoss’s aggressive posturing, a little over half of Rs32 crore for “tobacco-free initiatives” was spent.
Home department
The ministry returned Rs285.07 crore meant for police, especially its reforms. This includes Rs20 crore meant for induction of latest technology in Delhi police and Rs 113 crore of the Rs 122 crore meant for modernisation of Delhi police.
The food and public distribution department returned almost Rs500 crore. The water resources department had over Rs100 crore unspent. And urban development returned Rs100 crore unspent. Also left unspent was an allocation of Rs160.50 crore meant for computerization of district and subordinate courts in 2007-08.
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