HC raps govt for wasting funds
Pulling up the Maharashtra government for allegedly indulging in wasteful expenditure, while ignoring the deaths of women and children due to malnutrition, the Bombay high court on Monday asked the state to file an affidavit clarifying its stand on the issue.
The court was hearing a suo motu PIL on news reports highlighting deaths due to malnutrition even though crores of rupees have been allocated to the women and child welfare department. “This money could have been useful to save lives. So many women and children have died,” remarked Justice A.M. Khanwilkar. The bench directed the government to file an affidavit and kept the PIL for hearing on March 13.
Advocate Gayatri Singh, who appeared as amicus curiae in the matter, said that the social justice department had incurred an expenditure of `1.92 crore on carpets in 2010. According to details submitted by Ms Singh, in 2010, `9.65 crore were spent on banners, `2.88 crore on brochures and `4.5 crore on booklets. “The budgetary allocation is made for each year, which lapses automatically if it is not utilised in that year. Therefore, officials try to utilise the amount allocated before the financial year ends,” Ms Singh alleged. She told the court that the budgetary allocation for women and child development department for the year 2010 was `2,400 crore and for the integrated child development scheme (ICDS), it was `2,100 crore.
The suo motu petition alleged that during the period prior to 2010, huge amount of funds had been sanctioned for purchases without verifying the actual delivery. In January 2011, `7 crore was spent on vitamin syrup for tribal children. On March 31, 2011, the social justice department sanctioned a sum of `9.23 crore for supply of micro-nutrients to students of residential schools, set up for the children of a nomadic tribe. These funds were released two days before the budgetary allocation was to lapse, the petition alleged. The government also sanctioned `15 crore for buying toys for anganwadis in the state along with `55 crore for biscuits and chikkis and `65 crore for audio-visual and printed material for educational purpose, the petition alleged.
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