Par panel pulls up AYUSH ministry on underutilisation of funds

A Parliamentary Panel today expressed concerns over persistent and substantial under- utilisation of funds by the AYUSH Ministry under various categories and asked it to chalk out a fiscal roadmap for optimal utilisation of grants.
"The committee is constrained to note that there has been a persistent and substantial underutilisation of Plan funds under the heads - hospitals and dispensaries, educational institutions, research and development including medicinal plants, development of AYUSH industry and National Mission on AYUSH," a report of the Committee on Demands for Grants 2015-16 of the AYUSH Ministry said.
The Committee noted that the allocations made in budget estimates (BE) of 2013-14 and 2014-15, under the above heads were subsequently revised downward at the revised estimates (RE) stage and the sums which remained grossly underutilised were surrendered by the end of the year.

"The Committee observes that such huge variations in BE, RE and actuals are indicative of the fact that principles of fiscal prudence and discipline were neither observed nor proper assessment of the projects were carried out," the Committee chaired by Satish Chandra Misra.
It observed that in a "resource constrained" country like India, all care needs to be taken to ensure that the scarce resources do not remain locked up and surrendered at the fiscal end.
"The committee recommends that the Ministry chalk out its fiscal roadmap in such a way that the allocated funds are utilised optimally and more productively under the above heads and such a situation does not recur in the future," it noted.

Department of Indian System of Medicine and Homoeopathy (ISM&H) was created in March 1995 and re-named as Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) in November 2003.
Its aim was to provide focused attention to development of Education and Research in Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy systems.