New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) Terming the water resources ministry’s response ‘casual’, a parliamentary panel Friday hoped it would ‘ensure full utilisation of allotted funds’.
In its action taken report tabled in both houses of parliament Friday, the standing committee on the water resources ministry pointed out the plan expenditure of the ministry dropped to 73 percent in 2008-09 from 83 percent in the year before.
The committee had ‘desired proper assessment of requirement of funds so as to avoid idle parking of allocated funds,’ the report said. However, the ministry’s response that ‘necessary instructions have been issued to the concerned organisation is casual’, it added.
The committee said that as on April 1, utilisation certificates worth Rs.2.22 crore from 65 institutions and autonomous bodies and Rs 38.38 crore from 25 state governments were outstanding.
‘The ministry, however, preferred to remain studiously silent on fixing of a time-frame and introducing a penalty clause in case of delays. The committee deprecates such a perfunctory approach,’ the report said.
The committee also criticised the ministry’s delay in holding a workshop on a national water policy.
Drawing attention to the ‘looming threat of climate change and grave scarcity of water in future’, the committee said ‘the casual approach of the ministry is too apparent since no time-frame has been set for holding such a workshop’.
The committee also asked the ministry to ‘to impress upon the state governments to complete the pending projects of restoration of water bodies at the earliest’.
