VIDC gets lesser funds than budgetary allocation in 11 yrs

By Kartik Lokhande :

Distribution of funds to irrigation projects in Vidarbha has always been a matter of concern for the rainfed region. As per the official data, State Government has been releasing lesser funds to Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) than the budgetary allocation. This has been the tale for past 11 years, to say the least. VIDC was established in 1997 to provide a boost to creation of irrigation potential in the rainfed region of Vidarbha. Initially, there were 10 projects with it.

The very next year, in 1998, VIDC was entrusted with the task of completing total 86 projects. In 2007, VIDC was given the responsibility of the works of ‘all’ the under-survey, under-investigation, and under-construction irrigation projects in Vidarbha region. It ended up VIDC having total 1,075 irrigation projects. Of these, as per the official data of VIDC, construction work of 761 has been completed and the projects have been handed over to respective management agencies. These projects have created total irrigation potential of 7,01,709 hectares, claims an official note. Further, these projects put together have a designed storage capacity of 4,222.25 MM3. Besides, 314 projects are under construction. These include 18 major, 53 medium, and 243 minor ones. However, the pace of completion of projects has been tardy as pointed out previously in various official reports.

One of the main reasons is that the release of funds has been lesser than the budgetary allocation. This has been the phenomenon especially in the past 11 years. As per the official data, VIDC received Rs 852.02 crore lesser than the budgetary allocation in 2009-10. That year, the budgetary allocation for VIDC was Rs 3,944.90 crore but the Government released only Rs 3,092.88 crore to it. The same story got repeated every year till 2019-20, when VIDC received Rs 1,447.77 crore lesser than the budgetary allocation. In these 11 years, as the accompanying chart shows, VIDC received total Rs 5,436.57 crore lesser than the budgetary allocation.

A comparative analysis reveals that 2010-11 was a better year when the gap between budgetary allocation and funds released to VIDC was the lowest -- Rs 108.87 crore. But, all through these 11 years, there has been gap between budgetary allocation and funds released to VIDC, irrespective of the political dispensation in power in Maharashtra. On the condition of anomymity, officials in the know of things told ‘The Hitavada’ that though efforts were made to expedite completion of projects, certain technicalities including those relating to land acquisition, design changes, etc., created hurdles in full utilisation of even the released funds. That is, the actual expenditure has been lower than the funds released to VIDC. Especially, during the period after the irrigation scam came to fore in 2012, sources said, the officials were in ‘fear psychosis’ and shied away from clearing the files relating to various works with their signature. As a result, the funds released could not be utilised for a few years.

“Since 2015-16, however, situation changed thanks to streamlining of various processes,” said an official. In 2015-16, the expenditure was in excess of funds released. As against Rs 3,902.79 crore released, the utilisation was Rs 4,374.05 crore. In 2016-17, again the expenditure was lower than funds released. But, in 2017-18 and 2018-19, expenditure was more than the funds released to VIDC. “Still, the release of funds was lesser than the budgetary allocation and this affected expediting completion of projects. Now, situation arising out of COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have adverse impact on funds release as well as expenditure both. We are keeping fingers crossed,” said an official.