The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Kannada and Culture Department leaves funds unspent

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Wednesday, Aug 06, 2008
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Karnataka

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Kannada and Culture Department leaves funds unspent

Special Correspondent

Lack of coordination responsible for the lapse
Unspent funds also diverted for other schemes

BANGALORE: The legislators, who normally fight for funds for one project or the other, were in for surprise in the Legislative Council, when they learnt that Rs. 13 crore allocated to the Department of Kannada and Culture was left unspent.

They were surprised because the department failed to spend the entire money given to it for various reasons, including lack of coordination among different sections in implementing the schemes. In many others, the department had diverted the funds earmarked for specific reasons.

Stating this on behalf of the Chief Minister in the Council, Home Minister and Leader of the House, V.S. Acharya told Doddarange Gowda, also a poet, on Monday that during 2007-08, the department had been allocated Rs. 55.11 crore under Plan and non-Plan schemes out of which it had spent only Rs. 41.51 crore.

Dr. Acharya said under the Plan schemes, the department was provided Rs. 42.59 crore (Rs. 4,258.90 lakh) out of which it had Rs. 11.59 crore (Rs.1,158.63 lakh) unspent. Similarly, it gave Rs.12.52 crore (Rs. 1,252.14 lakh) under non-Plan projects, but the department had spent Rs. 10.51 crore only.

Citing some instances, the Minister said the Government had sanctioned Rs. 150 lakh in the budget for taking up development activities at Taluku village in Chitradurga district, the birthplace of T.S. Venkannaiah, noted Kannada writer in collaboration with the Deputy Commissioner of the district. Since, no money had been spent, Rs. 50 lakh was diverted to Kuvempu Bhasha Bharathi, Rs. 25 lakh to Govinda Pai Memorial and reserving only Rs. 10 lakh for publishing Venkannaiah’s works. he remaining Rs. 50 lakh was returned to the Finance Department. The Assistant Director of the Kannada and Culture Department, in-charge of implementing the development activities had been kept under suspension, on the report of the Deputy Commissioner, the Minister added.

Similarly, Rs. 5 crore was allocated for establishing a folklore research centre at Malai Mahadeswara Hills (M.M. Hills) in Chamarajanagar district, but not a rupee could be spent, because orders were not made for locating the centre and the committee was not constituted with its by-laws.

Taking advantage of this, Rs. 50 lakh was diverted for renovation of Ravindra Kalaksetra, Rs. 50 lakh for sponsored programmes and Rs. 6 lakh for the Rangotsava of Karnataka Nataka Academi.

Interestingly, Rs. 220.25 lakh was utilised for giving financial assistance to several organisations. Even then, Rs. 173.75 lakh remained unspent. The Government sanctioned Rs. 1 crore for reprinting books of D.R. Bendre, but it did not get the approval from Vamana Bendre, the son of the late national poet.

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