The Hindu : Plan implementation in disarray

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 19, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Plan implementation in disarray

By P. Venugopal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 18. Plan implementation, the way the term is usually understood, seems to have ceased to exist in Kerala, with the poor financial position of the Government forcing various departments into a state of passive existence.

The impression conveyed by heads of four departments, with whom discussed the issue, is that the finances of the State Government are as bad as it was towards the fag end of the LDF regime, when cheques issued by the Government used to bounce like India-rubber-balls. It is only through some deft management of the situation that the Finance Department is preventing the treasury from losing its credibility altogether.

The situation since October 2003 has been especially difficult, according to department heads. Though they have been given definite allocations in the Budget under Plan and non-Plan requirements, only the most unavoidable items under the head of non-Plan expenses are being disbursed to them. Once the monthly salaries are released, there will be little else left for even other pressing expenses like those on telephone charges and electricity bills.

In some of the offices the telephones have been cut, while in certain others, if the equipment continues to ring, it is because the employees themselves have pooled money to settle the bills. Vehicles cannot run as freely as they used to formerly, since there is no money to buy fuel.

The practice now being followed by each department is to submit to the Finance Department, on a monthly basis, its funds requirement under the Plan and non-Plan requirements for the subsequent month.

The Finance Department has the difficult job of apportioning the available money to different departments, depending upon priority, by issuing what has come to be known as `memo clearances'.

The first priority, of course, is the salary of the employees. The rest, to some extent, depends on which Minister, or political party in the UDF coalition, has bigger bargaining power.

While some departments like Agriculture find themselves at the losing end, others like Education and Industry somehow manage a bigger slice of the cake.

Certain chronic maladies afflicting the administration are yet again the reason for the present situation, according to top officials. The Budget has long since lost its sanctity here.

On the one side, the income of the Government always tends to get overestimated in the Budget.

And, on the other, several departments overspend, or bring in programmes that are not budgeted for, throwing the budgetary exercise into total confusion.

Plan achievement only till November 30, 2003 has been assessed so far. According to the Finance Minister's office, it was 39 per cent then, much better than the 30 per cent achievement the same time previous year.

The information from other official sources is that the Plan achievement of different `line-departments' till November 30, 2003 was but a poor 25 per cent. According to them, what is especially worrying about the present financial crunch is that it is manifesting during the final quarter of the financial year, when the receipts of the Government usually touch their peak.

Despite the dismaying picture being painted by various departments, the Minister's office is still confident that the Plan achievement this year will be at least 90 per cent.

"By January end we will get a clear picture. But there is no reason for alarm," an official in the Minister's office said.

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