The Scheme of Development Boards and its Achievements

Some important achievements of the Scheme of the Development Boards

A. Non-divertibility of funds from one region to another

An important provision in the Development Boards Order 1994 is that the allocation of funds or outlays made by the Governor shall be reflected in the annual financial statement to be placed before the State Legislature and the development activities with regard to outlays as aforesaid shall be carried out or caused to be carried out by the State Government; the funds so allocated shall be non-divertable from the area of one Board to that of another Board. The Governor has tried to ensure that the plan funds of one region are not diverted to other region and the funds for removal of backlog are not diverted to other non-backlog works. This will ensure that no further backlog in the backward regions is created. However, there were certain instances of diversion of funds from one region to the other which were noticed by the Governor. Those were immediately taken up by the Governor with the Chief Minister and it was ensured that such instances do not recur.

B. Region-wise allocation of Plan outlays

The region-wise break up of allocations were shown in the Annual Plan 1995-96 for the first time to bring in transparency in allocation. Since then a booklet on the region-wise and scheme-wise break-up of Annual Plan outlay is published every year by the Planning Department.

On the suggestion of the Governor, from the Annual Plan 2000-2001, the Government has been showing region-wise share of the divisible portion of the non-Budgetable part of the total Plan. This has brought in more transparency in the allocation for development programme and will also allay the fears of the backward regions that they are not getting an equitable share in the non-Budgetable part of the state Plan.

C. Region-wise break-up of non-Plan development provision

The State Government was directed to publish the region-wise break-up of the non-Plan development provision. From 1997-98 the Finance Department publishes this booklet every year.