10 districts fare poorly in utilising MLA-LAD fund

Jaipur: A detailed analysis of the progress of works under rural development and panchayati raj department shows that about 10 districts have spent less than 45% of its available budget under MLA-LAD fund till March 31, 2020. Total expenditure percentage under MLA-LAD fund as on March 31, 2020 (2019-20) was 53.05%, with a total cash balance of Rs 281.28 crore.

Pali, which fared poorly, had spent just 28.48% of the available budget till March 31, 2020. On May 15, 2020, the district’s cash balance was Rs 17.05 crore, with an expenditure of 5.92% since March 31 (when the cash balance was Rs 18.13 crore). The average cash balance (unspent) per MLA in the district (having six MLAs) was Rs 2.84 crore till May 15.

Meanwhile, in Pratapgarh district, the average cash balance (unspent) per MLA (having 2 MLAs) was Rs 1.71 crore and in Tonk, the average cash balance was Rs 2.01 crore per MLA (with four MLAs in the district), up to May 15, 2020.

However, 18 of the total districts have spent over 50% of its budget till March 31, 2020. These include Barmer, Sirohi, Churu, Rajsamand, Baran, Alwar, Bharatpur, Kota, Jaipur, Dungarpur, Nagaur, Jaisalmer, Banswara, Dausa, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Bhilwara and Jalore.

Rural development department special secretary P C Kishan said, “During the review meeting with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the Zilla Parishad, deputy chief minister (Sachin Pilot) instructed them to increase the expenditure percentage from 30-40% to more than 90% in all the districts. He also asked them to achieve a target of average available balance per MLA to be less than Rs 25 lakh by August 31, 2020. He said average cash balance per MLA should never exceed Rs 25 lakh. He also directed that funds should not remain idle in any district and monitoring of the progress of work should be done regularly.”

Pilot on Thursday pulled up the chief executive officers (CEOs) of various Zilla Parishads for poor performance in various rural development schemes. Ganganagar and Barmer were performing poorly in BADP (border area development programme); Bharatpur, Baran and Kota were not performing well under Dang; Ajmer, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand fared badly in Magra and Alwar in Swa-Vivek district development scheme and Sikar and Pratapgarh performing poorly in Jan Bhagidari Vikas Yojana.