Jakhar criticises govt for ‘less’ utilisation of grants
Friday, 03/10/2014
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=115978&boxid=58340&uid=&dat=2014-10-03
Chandigarh : Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sunil Jakhar has alleged that the state government has not been able to fully utilise the Central financial assistance for crop diversification due to what he also alleged ‘negligence of the Agriculture Department’.
“A perusal of the report released by the Union government on August 14 clearly indicates that the Punjab Agriculture Department had submitted utilisation report for Rs 161.07 crore whereas the total allocation was Rs 445 crore out of which Rs 224 crore had been released as first instalment,” he said in a statement, here on Thursday.
Jakhar added that the SAD-BJP government in the state had been criticising the previous UPA government at the Centre for lack of financial assistance to the agricultural sector, which suffered a lot due to the wheat-cotton-paddy circle.
“It should be inquired by an independent agency how the Central funds amounting Rs 1,500 crore were utilised since 2007. Millions of farmers were deprived of the benefits that the Central government sought to offer them through different welfare schemes. The wrong policies being pursued by the state had resulted in 25 per cent fall in cotton and paddy prices, this gives farmers a big jolt, he said. The delay in submitting utilisation certificates against funds received from New Delhi under other schemes put the state government under scanner,” Jakhar added.
