Don’t let funds sit idle: Odisha Chief Secy to departments

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Dec 30, 2020 at 9:40 PM

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy today directed the departments to ensure faster utilisation of budgeted money without keeping the funds idle.

During a review meeting held at the Lokseba Bhawan here the Chief Secretary directed the departments to focus on faster implementation of the projects by utilizing the budgeted money without parking the funds anywhere. He also directed the departments to ensure expeditious execution of the infrastructure laying and livelihood generating projects.

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Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra directed the departments to take regular review and monitoring of the OMBADC and DMF projects. Mohapatra added, “the projects of around Rs 20,000 cr are being implemented in major mineral bearing districts like Angul, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Rayagada, and Sundargarh. These projects would cater to many basic needs of the people.

Further, the Chief Secretary asked the departments of Water Resources, Rural Development, Works, Housing and Urban Development to “prioritize identified strategic projects and complete those within the scheduled time”.

Principal Secretary Finance Meena assured the departments that there would be “no dearth of funds project implementation”.

Review showed the revenue generation from both own tax and non-tax sources grew around 4% by end of November, 2020 in comparison to the corresponding period of the last year. The total revenue generation from both the sources by end of November, 2019 was around Rs. 28,402 or which increased to Rs.29,411.29 er during the current financial year. The total Non-tax revenue during the period grew by 23.29% during in current fiscal in comparison to the last fiscal year.

The total revenue generated from non-tax sources up to November, 2019 was Rs 8,485 or which increased to around Rs. 10,462 er during corresponding period of the current year. On face of shutdowns and lockdowns, the total budget utilization by end of November, 2020 reached around Rs 60,000 cr in different infrastructure, social and agriculture & allied sectors.

SRC Pradeep Kumar Jena, Additional Chief Secretary Health and Family Welfare Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, Secretaries and Special Secretaries of the departments were participated in the discussion.