By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 18 Aug: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a review of centrally funded schemes and externally aided projects at the Secretariat here today. During the review, he asserted that hundred percent utilisation of the Central funds should be ensured for the development of the state. He said that, for this, the responsibility of the head of the department and the secretary would be fixed. He directed that a cell be formed at the government level for monitoring the progress and the utilisation of funds related to the centrally funded schemes. Regular monitoring of the work being done by the departments should be done after the proposal is sent by the department to the Central Government and after acceptance of the proposal.
The Chief Minister instructed the officers that, if any department is facing any problem for the successful implementation of the schemes under centrally sponsored schemes, then the Chief Minister’s office should be informed about the problem immediately. A solution would be found after meeting with the officials concerned.
Dhami also directed the officials to ensure that the files related to the centrally funded and externally aided projects do not unnecessarily remain pending with the government after the funds have been sanctioned from the Central Government under various development schemes. Departmental secretaries should release the sanctioned funds at their level. All the departments should work in coordination so that the state gets full benefit of the centrally funded schemes. A plan should be presented by the Rural Development Department for centrally funded schemes under which work is being done under the Rural Development Department by the month of March itself.
The CM instructed the officers to speed up the works related to infrastructure development. After the approval of the departmental minister for the selection of executing agencies, the selection process should be started without delay, so that there is no delay in the implementation of the schemes. First priority should be given to the agencies from the state itself, he noted. During the meeting, the Chief Minister reviewed 42 centrally funded schemes of 22 departments with a budget of more than Rs 50 crore, each. The Chief Minister gave instructions to the officers to speed up the works of externally aided schemes.
It was stated at the meeting that a total provision of Rs 15,583 crores has been made for the financial year 2023-24 for the state under centrally funded schemes. In this financial year, till 31 July, 2023, an amount of Rs 4,204 crores has been approved. In relation to which an amount of Rs 1,759 crores has been spent. Till 31 July, 27 percent funds have been released in relation to the budget, while 42 percent of the sanctioned amount has been spent so far. While work is being done on 12 externally aided projects worth Rs 8,338 crores in the state, 10 externally aided projects worth Rs 17,165 crore are in the pipeline.
Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi, Principal Secretaries RK Sudhanshu, L Fanai, R Meenakshi Sundaram, Shailesh Bagoli, Dilip Jawalkar, Arvind Singh Hyanki, Dr Ranjit Kumar Sinha, Dr Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Brijesh Kumar Sant, Dipendra Chowdhary, Dr R Rajesh Kumar, Chandresh Kumar Yadav, Vijay Kumar Yadav, Additional Secretary Yogendra Yadav, Director General, Information Banshidhar Tiwari, and officers of the departments concerned were present.
