Hyderabad: The Telangana state government claims to spend over Rs 40,000 crore on welfare schemes every year, the highest in the country. But the truth is that very little of the money allocated in the budget for such schemes is actually spent and reaches the intended beneficiaries.
While the current fiscal will end in 37 days, not even half of the welfare funds sanctioned in Budget 2017-18 have been spent so far, defeating the very purpose of having welfare schemes.
This fact was revealed during the preparatory meetings being held for Budget 2018-19 by the finance department with all the concerned departments in the past few days.
The welfare schemes in the state are implemented by the backward classes welfare department, the social welfare department, the tribal welfare department and the minorities welfare department. All these departments were asked to submit details of budget spendings for 2017-18 and budget proposals for 2018-19.
Officials were shocked to see that the departments had not spent even half of the amounts allocated in 2017-18. This despite the fact that lakhs of students from BC, SC, ST categories are dependent on the fee reimbursement scheme and scholarships, and unemployed youth are waiting for subsidised loans for self-employment.
Yet all these departments have sought higher allocations in the new Budget over the previous one, without justifying how they would be able to spend the higher allocations over last year.
In the 2017-18 Budget an amount of '157 crore was allotted to SC department to finance students who want to pursue studies abroad but only '13 crore has been spent so far.
An amount of '130 crore had been sanctioned for constructing community halls and setting up Ambedkar statues, of which just '2.50 crore was spent. Of the '901 crore sanctioned for scholarships only '304 crore was spent. This despite the fact that the state government passed the new SC/ST Development Act to ensure 100 per cent utilisation of funds meant for these categories.
Only the Kalyani Laxmi scheme which gives '75,000 to perform the marriage of adolescent girls, was found to be somewhat better off with '110 of the allotted '210 crore spent. In the case of the Scheduled Tribes department, the situation is even worse.
The fruits of the three-acres of free land to Dalits, Kalyana Laxmi, scholarships, and development of BT roads in ST colonies have not reached the beneficiaries. For the BC department, the government sanctioned a huge amount of '5,000 crore, of which it could not spend more than '2,800 crore. Some seven lakh BC students are awaiting fee reimbursement and scholarships for the last one year.
Their certificates have been held back by college managements because their fees have not been paid by government, which says it is still verifying eligible students.
Realising the appalling situation they are in, the concerned departments are scurrying to spend the funds. SC development minister G. Jagadish Reddy convened a meeting with officials on Monday and ordered them to spend all the allocated funds within 50 days. But officials are doubtful if this can be done since the finance department usually freezes all payments, except salaries and pensions for staff, towards the end of the financial year so as to avoid higher revenue deficit kind of situation which will impact government borrowings in the new Budget.
Mr Reddy said, “The government has allotted '14,375 crore for SC development of which '6,689 crore has been spent so far. We still have about 50 days to spend the remaining amount. Officials have been directed to speed up spending and ensure optimum utilisation of funds. The existing Act has a provision to carry forward unspent funds to the next budget.”
However, questions have been raised about whether this provision in the Act can be implemented given that if such a huge amount of backlog funds are carried forward, it would be difficult for the finance department to adjust funds in the new budget.
