Please spend!!!

India might have 450 million paupers; it has never been a poor nation in the sense of availability of funds. But sadly, it has always been a poor performer when it comes to the efficient allocation of these funds.

The capital city itself is a stark indicator of this unfortunate situation; so one can imagine the issues with the rest of the country. According to a report by CAG that was released in 2006, there were 34 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of Delhi in the list of blacklisted MLAs, who hadn’t been able to utilise the funds allocated especially to them for their constituency development under the Assembly Constituency Development Programme (ACDP). The report stated that in the financial year of 2004-05, there were 3 MLAs who didn’t spend even a single penny for development. The remaining spent less than half of the amount that was allocated to them. Further researches reveal that even in the financial year of 2008-09, at least 12 MLAs haven’t fully utilised the funds allocated to them under ACDP and around Rs.75 lakh in funds have got lapsed. Similarly, in the state of Karnataka, a shocking 45% of the funds allocated under various drought or flood relief schemes remain unused. The state government had Rs.4.94 billion for drought and flood relief work, but it was able to spend only Rs.2.76 billion out of the same. In Tamil Nadu, information revealed under the RTI act depicts that an alarming 43% of the funds allocated to 15 MLAs remained unused in 2008. Around Rs.450 million had been allocated to those 15 MLAs.

The scenario is pretty similar in most of the states. Actually, these MLAs are guilty of not doing the needful in envisioning the right kind of development projects and ensuring that they are successfully executed. This gives us a clear idea as to why most of these states face a dearth of modern infrastructure and facilities; besides lacking seriously in opportunities for the have-nots to improve their lot and lead better lives.