Odisha not keen on RKVY implementation: CAG

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
New Delhi/Bhubaneswar, May 10:

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report presented in the Parliament recently, has indicated that the Odisha government has not shown its keenness on implementation of Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana (RKVY).

The report said Odisha had submitted the proposal to the Centre for implementation of RKVY after 33 months.

“Not only this, the state government till date has not reviewed the status of RKVY. Out of a total of 20 approval meetings fixed by the state government between 2008 and 2013, only nine meetings have been held. Besides, there was a delay of nine months by the state government in providing the funds to the implementing agencies as a result of which there was a delay in the implementation of the projects”, the report has pointed out.

Besides, out of a total of 100 advisory centres planned to be opened in the state for the programme, construction of 14 centres at Khallikote, Junagarh, Narla, Sheragarh, Aska, Soroda, Kashinagar, Gosani and Gumma blocks is yet to be completed due to lack of inter-departmental coordination, it noted.

The report further said the state level approval committee had approved Rs 10.25 crore for 100 new watershed projects in the state. Besides, it had also approved Rs 6.34 crore for a seed testing laboratory at Badachana. However, the work of these projects has been badly hampered to failure of the state government in submitting utilisation certificate (UC) to the Centre.

It may be mentioned that the Centre had launched RKVY in the country in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan with a target of four percent growth in the agriculture sector in view of its poor performance in sector in the previous decade.

However, the CAG, in its report, has said the financial management of the RKVY in most of the states including Odisha is not satisfactory.