DHARWAD
District Minister Santosh Lad called upon the officials of various departments in the district to ensure that the funds released by the central and state govt for various programmes are utilised in a time frame and target is achieved.
Chairing a quarterly meeting of the district level officers to review the progress in the implementation of Karnataka Development Programmes (KDP) in the district, he said “The officials of the departments concerned will be personally held responsible if the works are not taken up and the funds lapse due to their negligence. The officers concerned will have to pay from their pockets and make the lapsed funds good.”
“The minister informed that in this quarter alone, a total of Rs 1,300 crore has been received from both Union and state govts for various schemes. Of this, Rs 513 crore has been released, and Rs 441 crore has been spent. The overall achievement rate across projects stands at 91 percent. But this is not enough,” the Minister said. “If the remaining funds are returned unutilized, the officials concerned will be held financially accountable,” he warned.
The Minister highlighted that the district has a variety of soil suitable for cultivating diverse crops. The government has already issued soil health cards to farmers, and officials must guide them to select crops accordingly, he said and added that at least one hobli should be developed as a model.
On MGNREGA, Lad expressed his anguish at the extremely poor implementation of the scheme in the district. Despite having ample opportunity to create more man-days, officials failed to act, and today the rural poor are not reaping the benefits of MGNREGA. “As per current targets, the district should have created 80,000 human days this year,” he said.