Kerala plan outlay fixed at Rs 24,000 crore

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Annual fund utilization has consistently fallen short but a seemingly unruffled Planning Board has fixed the state plan outlay for 2016-17 even higher at Rs 24,000 crore, up 20 percent from the current fiscal.

The gross plan outlay for 2016-17, which adds central assistance to the state plan outlay, has been pegged at Rs 30,354 crore, which is only 9.7 percent higher than the current year considering a marked reduction in central assistance in the coming years. This fiscal, central assistance is Rs 7657.73 crore.

But the estimated assistance next fiscal is only Rs 6354 crore. Planning Board vice chairman K M Chandrasekhar said the plan outlay had been submitted to the cabinet for approval.

The highlight of the 2016-17 plan outlay is the additional Rs 500 it seeks to pass on to 14 district panchayats and six corporations, over and above the Rs 5000 crore that will be devolved to the local bodies.

In all, local bodies will get Rs 5500 crore, up from Rs 4800 crore this fiscal.

This additional grant has been introduced to encourage local bodies to take up mandatory functions like waste management, construction of public toilets and slaughter houses, creation of wayside amenities, and setting up of industrial infrastructure, which they had been ignoring for long.

This money will be disbursed on a project-by-project basis, with the state providing 70 percent of the cost and the concerned local body finding the rest.

There has also been a quantum jump in allocation for scheduled tribes. Though the ST community forms only 1.45 percent of the population, 2.85 percent of the plan outlay -or nearly double their proportion in the population - will be set apart for them.

The schedule caste group will also get slightly more than what is normally their due. They constitute 9.1 percent of the population but 9.8 percent of the outlay will be earmarked for them.

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