Centre pulls up State for misusing funds given to fight Naxals

The Maharashtra government compromised on its internal security by mishandling Central funds meant to fight leftwing extremism in remote areas of the state midday has learnt that the Centre has pulled up Maharashtra for poor management of funds which had been provided to fill gaps in the critical infrastructure in the Naxalhit districts of Gadchiroli and GondiaThe Scheme for Special Infrastructure was announced in 2008 to provide assistance to the governments of five states to upgrade their Special Forces deployed in Naxalhit areas File pic for representationThe other districts where the funds were found misused and remained unaccounted for over the years are Khammam in Telangana Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh and Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh These funds had been sanctioned under the Centralassisted Scheme for Special Infrastructure SIS launched in five Naxalhit states back in 2008Not only did Maharashtra not account for 1255 per cent of the funds provided since 2008 the Centre also found several deficiencies in its accounting of funds including major mismatch in the physical and financial progress reports submitted and not returning and not accounting for the unspent funds back to the CentreThis has raised doubts that the money was never used for development purposes The Central government has now threatened to withdraw leftover funds lying with the state if it does not account for it at the earliest The issue was raised by Dilip Kumar joint secretary Ministry of Home Affairs at North Block New Delhi in his letter to the Maharashtra Chief Secretary CS written in March this yearKumar warned that despite several reminders the state has not bothered to show financial prudence and the Centre will be forced to block future funds for fighting Naxal activities ldquoThe Comptroller and Auditor General CAG has already adversely commented on the poor implementation of the SISSome serious deficiencies that have been noticed are physical and financial progress reports submitted do not match with each other and it is not clear what has been done with the funds lying vacant with the staterdquo said Kumar in his letter to the Maharashtra CS The SIS was announced in 2008 to provide assistance to the governments of five states to upgrade their Special Forces deployed in Naxalhit areasThe first allocation of R500 crore which went to eight districts spanning these five state was meant to cater to critical infrastructure gaps and works related to building mobility for the security forces upgrading existing roads tracks in inaccessible areas providing secure camping grounds and helipads at strategic locations upgradation of infrastructure weaponry equipment and training of forcesA total of Rs 1943 crore has been released to the five states under the scheme since 2008 Central government officials said Of this doubts have been raised in the utilisation of Rs 243 crore ldquoSome of the works sanctioned were completed at costs lesser than estimated Itrsquos not clear what has been done with the remaining funds The state should either return the amount to the Indian government or utilise them immediatelyrdquo said Kumar in his letterOfficial speakWhen contacted Amitabh Rajan former additional chief secretary home who was in charge of the department for the last five years and recently retired said ldquoThere is a conceptual problem with the Naxal expenditure in MaharashtraWhile the funds are assigned for the operational area the politically negotiated area of Naxal operation is much bigger Secondly the funds here Maharashtra are spent through the Public Works Department PWD unlike other states which do it through the police and other unofficial channelsTherefore they become tedious department works on Maharashtra We also need to improve the working of zilla parishads and push them hard to reach in the remotest regions with these funds Overall with these restraints we have done reasonably wellrdquo