Hyderabad: More than Rs 1,000 crore to be given to SC, ST farmers as the final part of the loan waiver scheme are held up with the district administrations due to the lack of proper records with the agriculture department. In Nalgonda district, the agriculture department released Rs 46 crore for SC farmers. The Nalgonda administration wrote back to the government saying there were no SC farmers in the district, asked permission to use the funds for general category farmers.
In the last phase, the government released '2,957 crore for general category farmers and another Rs 1,043 crore from the SC, ST Special Development Fund for those in the two communities on April 11. This fund for SC and ST farmers were given in proportion to their population and not according to number of farmers.
Sources said in many districts, the funds released for SC and ST farmers remained unpaid as there were no farmers from the two communities. The funds were not returned to the government. Only the Nalgonda officials told the government that there were no farmers from among the SCs and STs in the district. Following this, the finance department allowed all districts to utilise unspent funds allotted to SC and ST farmers for farmers in the general category.
TS wings fail to get Central funds:
Due to non-submission of utilisation certificates, government departments are not able to get funds under Centrally sponsored schemes for the second quarter in the current financial year. The Centre has released funds for some schemes, but the state government has not released its share. For example, for AMRUT cities, the Centre released Rs 22 crore, under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing for All, it released 25 per cent of the amount totalling Rs 398 crore.
The state is also not releasing the funds it has received from the Centre. Under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation), the Centre released '1.9 crore on July 19 for implementation of Geographic Information System -based master plans. It released another Rs 19.93 crore on July 23 as an incentive for achieving reforms milestones mandated in 2016-17.
This money has not been released by the finance department. Officials said utilisation certificates for this amount will be sent to the Central after the money is released. Same is the case with PMAY funds. Chief secretary S.P. Singh asked all departments to send the details of pending utilisation certificates of the first quarter of the financial year.
