Rural development minister refutes at failure to utilise funds

Jamshedpur : State rural development minister Neelkanth Singh Munda on Thursday threatened to hold back salaries of block level officials and panchayat officials for their failure to utilise funds allocated in the district under 14th finance commission.

Munda today reviewed the implementation of development schemes using funds from 14th finance commission in East Singhbhum district at the Birsa Munda Town Hall at Sidhgora this evening.

He was accompanied by panchayat raj secretary Vandana Dadel, expressed unhappiness over lack of coordination between block development officials (BDOs), circle officers (COs) and panchayat raj members which has resulted in less utilization of funds for development activities in rural areas.

� It is really shocking that only Rs 35-crore has been spent out of a total amount of Rs 55-crore (only 59 per cent) sanctioned for the East Singhbhum district. I have seen communication gap between the BDOs, panchayat sevaks, panchayat secretaries and mukhiyas.

It also seems that weekly meeting at block level and monthly meeting at panchayat secretariat are either not held regularly. We will not hesitate to withhold salaries of block level officials and even elected panchayat officials if they fail to utilize the funds in development schemes,� said Munda.

The 14th finance commission fund was received in 2014 and amount will be used in central sponsored schemes both at rural and urban areas. The commission tenure is for five years. There are in all 11 blocks in the district and a total of 231 panchayats.

The minister also directed the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amit Kumar and deputy development commissioner Suraj Kumar to form an action plan both in terms of execution of developments schemes and utilization of funds.
� I have issues instructions.

I have directed the district administration to recommend action against block level officials not performing and also panchayat level officials who fail to adhere to the time bound action plan. There should be deadline for fund utilization in various schemes and completion of projects at panchayat and block level,� the minister said.

The Minister also asked the Mukhiyas to conduct village meeting to get consent for schemes to be implemented in the village. He also announced that in April funds would also be available for lected zilla parishad members in the state.