New Odisha Chief Secy sets target to raise plan expenditure

With the Odisha government utilising only 15 per cent of the state's plan budget by June, new chief secretary G C Pati today set a target of reaching 50 per cent expenditure by the end of December, official sources said.
Pati issued instructions at the meeting of secretaries here at the state secretariat and favoured formation of a secretary level sub-committee which could meet more frequently to look into implementation of projects and remove bottlenecks.
The meeting resolved that the existing Integrated Odisha Treasury Management System (IOTMS) would not be adequate to spend more than 40 per cent of the budget by the last quarter of the current year, the sources said.

The utilisation in agriculture and allied sectors which include departments like Agriculture, Water Resources, Fisheries and Animal Resource Development, Co-operation, Energy (separate agriculture feeder) has been around 18 per cent against last year's figure of 10 per cent, said additional chief secretary (Finance) U N Behera.
Utilisation in building of Infrastructure has also been only around 17 per cent, which include departments like Works, Housing and Urban development, Rural development and Energy (other than agri feeder), the sources said.
Similarly, expenditure in social sector up to June during the current year has been Rs 2,530.54 crore, which was around 17 per cent of the estimated budget against last year's expenditure of 13 per cent.