The Maharashtra government’s Minorities Development Department (MDD) has not spent Rs 460 crore of the funds it was provided for various welfare schemes of the communities. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India have revealed this in its annual report tabled in the state legislature on Tuesday.
The CAG assessed the MDD’s functioning during a period of 2013-2018. It has recorded that the department was provided funds of Rs 1,936.60 crore for implementation of various schemes. Against which, it incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,475.98 crore on the schemes. Thus, leaving the saving of Rs 460.63 crore (24 per cent).
The MDD was formed in February 2008 in pursuance to the recommendations of the Sachar Committee appointed by Union government to study the social, educational and financial backwardness of the minority communities. MDD was established to implement and monitor schemes for the overall development of minorities. As it does not have any district/regional offices, the schemes/programmes are being implemented through District Collectors and local civic bodies.
The CAG report states, The MDD did not prepare a strategic long term plan encompassing needs/gaps analysis, integrated programmes/schemes to be implemented for the development of minorities in the state based on the social, educational and economic status of minority communities. The schemes are undertaken by MDD, nonetheless, did cater to some of the needs/gaps. However, a strategic plan could have helped to understand the extent of the problem and provided a focused direction to the efforts of MDD. Besides, baseline surveys for identifying the infrastructural gaps were not conducted.