|
Contents:
The
Fact Sheet – Social & Community Welfare Sector, Rajasthan
The
Fact Sheet – Social & Community Welfare Sector, Rajasthan
The
Rajasthan Social & Community Welfare Sector Scenario – Where has the money
gone?
As part of
its ongoing budgetary analyses the CUTS team analysed various schemes being
implemented by various departments for Social and Community Welfare.
The analyses threw up a number of questions in terms of financial
allocation, actual expenditure, and achievement of targets set.
These questions have since been raised in the floor of the Rajasthan
Assembly, as part of our advocacy campaign.
Social
and Community Welfare Sector has been one of the priority sectors for the
Government of Rajasthan, which is evident from the fact that the budgetary
allocations for this sector has seen an unprecedented increase of nearly 58
percent since the fiscal year 1996-97.
However,
the irony is that this steep increase in the allocations has not been fully
utilised in this period, and despite this, the government continues to increase
the allocations for the sector.
In terms of
figures the allocation for this sector stands today at Rs. 1491.86 Cr as against
an allocation of Rs. 947.12 Cr in the fiscal year 1996-97.
However, the actual utilisation of this has been in the region of just
around Rs. 844 Cr, which is much lesser than the budget allocation during the
year 1996-97.
To go a
little in to detail, the social and welfare sector has 8 broad budget heads
namely, education, Medical and Health, Sewerage and water supply, Housing, Urban
Development, Labour and Labour Welfare, Backward and Tribal development and
Information and Publicity. A look
at just the last two fiscal year’s utilisation under each of the budget head
has revealed that in virtually all these segments, under-utilisation has been to
the tune of 15-40 percent with an average underutilisation being in the range of
23 percent in 1999-2000 and about 10 percent in the financial year 2000-01.
This level of
under-utilisation of allocation when read with the actual physical targets
reveal that there has been an under-achievement of physical targets in the range
of over 30 percent in the financial year 1999-2000 and about 19 percent in the
financial year 2000-01.
Interestingly
some of the crucial sectors such as labour and labour welfare, education and
medical and health have borne the major brunt of under-utilisation and
under-achievement of targets. While
it is acknowledged that all under-utilisation of resources is not bad, because
sometimes, the allocations are based on estimates and that kind of resources may
not be required, the fact remains that when there is under-achievement of
targets, then there is some failure in the fiscal planning.
A random
sample of some shortfall in physical and financial targets would reveal that
this has happened in crucial sectors.
-
Rajiv
Gandhi Pathshala scheme (Schools) targeted at 12000 schools, but only 7301
could be opened. (39 percent of shortfall);
-
Supply of
drinking water was to be provided to 1946 villages, while it was supplied to
only 922 of them. (53 percent shortfall)
-
During
the year 1999-2000 and 2000-2001, targets set for scholarship to handicapped
students were not achieved to the extent. 29000 students were to be provided
the scholarship during each year of the above duration. 19564 and 21240
students were given the scholarships in the respective years. Hence, there
was a shortfall of about 33 and 27 percent during the duration of two years.
-
16.11
lakh people were to be benefited under the programme of Adult Literacy,
during the year 1999-2000. On the contrary, only 4.02 lakh people got the
benefits. Similarly for the year 2000-2001, the target was for 50.10 lakh,
and the achievement was only 9.32 lakh. Hence, there was a shortfall of 75
and 82 percent during the respective years.
-
Under Low
Cost Sanitation, during the years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001, the allocated
amount of Rs 1 cr. were not utilised at all. As a result, the target of
giving employment to 12121 unemployed, failed during the year 2000-2001.
-
Under the
bonded labourers rehabilitation Programme there was an under-utilisation of
around 94 percent of the allocated amount in year 1999-2000 and 100 percent
during the year 2000-2001. In the year 1999-2000 an interesting point was
that an initial allocation of Rs. 16. 0 lacs made was later reduced to Rs.
2.0 lacs, which also ironically remained un-utilised
|
