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Mumbai: Maharashtra's finance minister Ajit Pawar has brought expenditures worth around ₹1,000 crore reserved for “innovative work” schemes at the district level under the state government's direct control after being told that the funds were being used for unnecessary and unrelated expenditures over the last two financial years.
Mumbai: Maharashtra's finance minister Ajit Pawar has brought expenditures worth around ₹1,000 crore reserved for “innovative work” schemes at the district level under the state government's direct control after being told that the funds were being used for unnecessary and unrelated expenditures over the last two financial years.
At a time when the state's debt burden is set to soar to ₹9.32 lakh crore, partly due to populist welfare schemes such as the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, Pawar has directed the planning department to start reviewing its spending after noticing that funds were misused for “purchase-oriented expenditures” that had nothing to do with innovative work, officials said.
According to officials, Pawar reviewed the planning department's expenses over the last two financial years—2023-24 and 2024-25—in July. The department provides funds to the District Planning and Development Committee (DPDC) in each district to undertake various development work.
Of the total funds, 5% is reserved for “innovative work - sustainable development and assessment-data entry”. For FY 2025-26, the total fund allocation for district planning and development is ₹20,168 crore. Therefore, the allocation for innovative work amounts to around ₹1,000 crore.
Examples of innovative work schemes include self-employment for orphan children, infrastructure for competitive exam preparation, initiatives to save girl children, strengthening and renovating science laboratories in Zilla Parishad schools, or any new idea that will contribute to the development of the district.
However, the review and assessment report of the planning department showed that in the name of innovative work, funds were used for purchasing goods and appliances like digital boards in schools, computers for labs, tables for Anganwadi, and fodder for cattle, among others, said an official from the planning department. “In some districts, even 100% of the funds for innovative work were used for such unnecessary expenditure,” the official said.
During the meeting in July, Pawar expressed his displeasure with the way funds were misused, officials said. The finance minister said that funds for innovative work should be used to create permanent assets for the government. He ordered the planning department to bring the expenditure on innovative work under control and issue state-level directives.
Accordingly, the planning department has fixed a standard procedure for spending funds on innovative work, officials said. Henceforth, people at the district level cannot spend these funds according to their likes or personal interests.
An order issued by the planning department states, “The aim of expenditure on innovative work schemes is to increase the human development index and per capita income, and to achieve sustainable development. In every financial year, each district could implement only four to five schemes related to innovative work. If districts want to implement more such schemes, the approval of the state government will be necessary. Along with that, permission of the state government will be necessary to spend more than ₹3 crore on each work or scheme under the innovative work-scheme category. Purchase of goods and materials, which could be accommodated in the general scheme or expenditures, will not be allowed in this.”
Source: HindustanTimes
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