I&B Ministry slammed for poor fund utilisation

            Delay in approval of schemes coupled with long procurement process has led to poor utilisation of Plan allocation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Ministry has utilised only 19 per cent of 11th Plan allocation of Rs 6,311 crore in the first three years of the Plan with the actual expenditure for the period at Rs 1,193.50 crore.

          Terming the usage of budgetary allocation as dismal, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology said under utilisation indicates poor budgeting mechanism and the failure of monitoring mechanism to review the implementation of various schemes.

      Suggesting that the Ministry make the implementation of schemes and programmes more effective and step up the monitoring mechanism both qualitatively and quantitatively, the Standing Committee said all efforts should be made to ensure that financial and physical targets under each of the project and schemes are fully achieved. Of the 38 new schemes included in the I&B Ministry's Annual Plan for 2010-11, about 13 are still awaiting requisite approval.

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