Kerala: Agri Plan spend 60 per cent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The expenditure incurred by the Agriculture department has been less than 60 percent as files move at a snail’s pace in the Secretariat. The widening CPM- CPI rift is also not going to help matters either. The forthcoming could be a casualty, according to sources. It is reliably learnt that senior officials in the Agriculture department are still awaiting Agriculture Minister V. S. Sunil Kumar to set in motion serious discussions in the run-up to the State budget on March 3.

During UDF ministry, pre-budget discussions used to take place much in advance, with each department vying among themselves to get more budgetary allocations. A department official told DC that usually by this time two to three levels of high level discussions would be over under the UDF dispensation. “Unfortunately the minister – principal secretary-level talks with other department officials are yet to take place. Mr Subrata Biswas, former agriculture principle secretary and Agriculture Production Commissioner, was keen on mobilizing central funds on time”, said a department official.

The major charge is that Agriculture Secretary Raju Narayana Swamy is sitting on files. “A joint secretary, earlier in the Law Department, is now in the World Trade Organisation cell as special officer. She first sees files and passes them to the Secretary with pencil jottings. The Secretary then clears them, ensuring none of them can land him in controversies. How can decisions be taken in this constipated atmosphere”, a top department official told DC.