Gujarat govt's 23 of 28 depts "fail to utilize" budgeted funds; spending on development shrinks

While the Gujarat government has claimed that the 2016-18 budget seeks to “optimize inclusive development of human resources”, a state-based non-profit budget analysis centre has revealed that, in the outgoing financial year, 2016-17, out of 28 departments, just about five – education, finance, water resources (including Narmada), panchayat and rural housing, and revenue – would spend (or overspend) the funds allocated to them.
Pathey’s figures are based on estimates made by the state department for the current financial year, which ends on March 31, 2017.
The departments that would top the list in failing to utilize funds would be youth and sports (shortfall of 30.64%), followed by woman and child (27.16%), food and civil supplies (22.35%), industries and mines (21.64%), information and broadcasting (21.16%), science and technology (18.64%), roads and buildings (18.64%), and climate change (17.75%).
Other important departments with a relatively smaller shortfall in utilizing budgeted funds would include agriculture and cooperatives, energy and petrochemicals, forests and environment, health and family welfare, home, labour and employment, ports and transport, social justice and empowerment, and tribal development.
The department-wise on funds utilization takes into account both developmental and non-developmental expenditure. What is worrying, Pathey suggests, is that the shortfall in developmental expenditure is particularly glaring.
Choosing economic services for analyzing the shortfall, Pathey says, a whopping Rs 5,764.14 crore, meant to be spent for rendering different types of economic services, would remain unutilized in 2016-17.
The analysis has found that out of ten different heads of economic services, only under two – special area programme, and science, technology and environment – has the state government been able to fully utilize its budgetary allocation for developmental needs. All other services have failed in funds utilization.
The areas where the state government would particularly fail to use up the allocations include – agriculture and allied services (allocation: Rs 6,977.25 crore, untilized funds: Rs 787.84, or 11.29%); rural development (allocation: Rs 5,634.58 crore, unutilized funds Rs 784.55 or 13.92%); industry and mines (allocation: Rs 2,604.82, unutilized funds Rs 303.83 or 11.66%); and transport (allocation: Rs 8017.77 crore, funds: Rs 566.25 crore or 7.06%).
Pointing out that the state government’s expenditure is divided into three sections, out of which two are developmental (economic services and social services), and one (general services), non-developmental, Pathey says, there has been a progressive deceleration of allocation vis-à-vis the overall budget for both economic and social services over the last two years. This has further going down in 2017-18.
Thus, the economic services formed 29.31% of the total budget in 2015-16, which slightly increased to 30.28% of the budget for 2016-17, but went down to 27.03% in the revised estimate for 2016-17. In the new budget, 2017-18, this has further gone down to 25.83%.
As for the social services, things are no different. It was 38.27% of the budget in 2015-16, which went down to 37.42% of the budget in 2016-17, and further down to the revised estimate for the year -- 36.68% per cent. In the new budget, 2017-18, it is further down to 25.83%.
Only general services, which according to the Pathey mainly include “non-developmental” spending like payment of debts, pensions and other such “essential” expenditures, the allocation increased – it was 32.42% of the total budget in 2015-16, which slightly decelerated to 32.29% in the 2016-17 budget, but was revised in the same year to 36.28%. Now, in 2017-18, has gone up to a whopping 39.42%.

Comments

Patriot, Link: How Soviet imbroglio post-1968 crucially influenced alternative media platforms

Adatata Narayanan, Aruna Asaf Ali Alternative media, as we know it today in the age of information and communication technology (ICT), didn't exist in the form it does today during or around the time I joined formal journalism at Link Newsweekly as a sub-editor in January 1979. However, Link, and its sister publication Patriot, a daily—both published from Delhi—were known to have provided what could be called an alternative media platform at a time when major Delhi-based dailies were controlled by media barons.

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Martyrs’ Day at Sanand: Remembering Vinod Kinariwala amidst politics of remembrance

I was urged by a close relative, considered across my family as a binding force, to attend a grand ceremony on Martyrs' Day, March 23, along with four other relatives. The event, called Veeranjali (homage to martyrs), was to be held in an open space near Sanand town, about 15 kilometers from Ahmedabad. Martyrs' Day has been observed across India since independence, as it was on this day in 1931 that Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru were executed.

Search This Blog