India: Science, Environment Agencies Fail To Spend 12% Of Funds

Scientific and environmental departments of the Central government have failed to spend funds allocated to them in 2016-17 and they returned Rs. 7,378-crore – nearly 12 per cent of their total budgetary allocation, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has said in a report.

While the various science and environment agencies of the Government of India received a total budgetary allocation of Rs. 62,935-crore in 2016-17, their total spending was only Rs. 55,557-crore.

The maximum unspent funds were reported by the Ministry of Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation, which returned Rs. 2,388.2-crore (27 per cent of its total annual budget), followed by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) which left Rs. 2,244-crore unspent, the report said. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) could not utilise 9.29 per cent of its budgetary allocation amounting to Rs. 1,867-crore, in the same year.

MNRE was also pulled up by the official auditor for not meeting its annual targets for most of the financial years since 2012-13, barring 2014-15. The shortfall in achievement of target was highest in 2016-17 at 58 per cent, it said. Even though the Ministry subsequently revised the target from 250-MW to 150-MW, its achievement still fell short by 29 per cent, the CAG said.

The auditor also castigated the Heavy Water Board, which is under DAE for incurring a wasteful expenditure of nearly Rs. 68-crore for delays in closing down its heavy water plants in Vadodara in Gujarat and Talcher in Odisha. It also said there were delays in execution of 29 out 33 projects undertaken by the Board during this period.