Abhay Singh, TNN | May 11, 2015, 11.03PM IST
PATNA: Former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo) said on Monday the state government lost out on the money provided by the 13th Finance Commission, as it could not take around Rs2,058 crore from the Centre for various schemes pertaining to its five-year period.
Modi said this impacted various schemes, like construction of panchayat bhawans, new industrial training institutes (ITIs), upkeep and excavation at archaeological sites, Rajgir Police Training Academy (RPTA), interlinking of rivers and preparation of unique identification numbers (or Aadhaar cards).
The paradoxical situation is that the state government claims the 14th Finance Commission recommendations are skewed against Bihar, but it failed to show its capacity to take money from the Centre for various schemes, he said.
Modi said the 13th Finance Commission had recommended Rs14,602 crore for the state to be used over a period of five years -- 2010-11 to 2014-15 - but, overall, the state government failed to take Rs2,058 crore from the Centre, probably for the reason that it had no capacity to utilize the money.
Of the allotment of Rs1,000 crore for the construction of panchayat bhawans, the government could not take Rs500 crore. Similarly, it lost out Rs25 crore on the construction of ITIs against allotment of Rs100 crore, Rs28 crore allotted for Nalanda Virasat Yojana in CM Nitish Kumar's home district, Rs228 crore on water resources department schemes against allotment of Rs304 crore and Rs323 crore on the preparation of UID or Aadhaar cards against allotment of Rs369 crore, Modi said, adding that government failed to utilize Rs333 crore allotted for interlinking of rivers.