Govt puts micro-level fund plan on the back burner

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s plan to decentralise fund allocation at the district level may not bear fruit
this year. Barring Irrigation and Water Grid programme, the government has dropped the proposal to prepare “District Development
Cards” (DDCs) meant for allocating scheme and programme specific funds in each district in the 2016-17 budget in March this year. The
Chief Minister conceived the idea of preparation of DDCs by replacing the decade-old conventional method of earmarking funds at the
State level for each programme. The Chief Minister’s proposal was also ratified at the recently held Cabinet meeting. “Difficulties such as
lack of required staff at the District Planning Department for ascertaining estimations for each scheme at micro level and lack of complete
data with the departments concerned have hindered the entire process of preparing DDCs," a senior official from Finance Department told
The Hans India.

In a series of meetings held with the Finance and Planning Departments as part of budget preparations, officials concerned poured out
their woes while finalising fund allocation. Many important departments like Medical, Agriculture, Rural Development, Panchayat Raj,
Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Rural Water Supply, Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and
Minority welfare and Women Development and Child Welfare Departments did not have the required information with regard to each
scheme that was being implemented.

For instance, funds allocated for urban development were being utilised based on the proposals submitted by the local bodies after
finalisation of funds for MA&UD Department during every annual budget. Now, the department is unaware of the requirement of funds to
each municipality in every district as the local bodies are yet to prepare plans. This year, DDCs will be prepared only for Irrigation and
Water Grid schemes for which the proposals were already finalised in every district. The Irrigation Department also approved estimations
for each project to be taken up in every district.

Similarly, plans for water grid scheme aimed at providing potable drinking water to every household by 2018 were already approved,
officials said. Officials of the State Planning Department said the DDCs would be prepared in detail by strengthening the planning wing
and compiling data required for the purpose from all the departments next year.

Patan Afzal Babu