Perform or perish: Maharashtra shunts out official for ‘Returned’ funds

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has transferred a young IAS officer from Nashik for not fully using the funds allocated by the Centre and state. Deepak Kumar Meena, CEO of Nashik zilla parishad, was transferred after he couldn’t use the funds allocated to him for rural development and tribal development.

State government officials said Meena had allegedly used only 2.75% of the central government funds meant for rural development. Every year, the central government allocates funds for districts under various heads such as tribal development, water supply schemes, development of roads, etc. The Centre had given Rs 300 crore, while the state had allocated an even higher amount for Nashik.

When contacted, Meena claimed that he was not transferred because of lack of utilisation of central and state funds. “This is not the real reason, but I can’t reveal why I was transferred,” he said.


Meena argued that he can’t be blamed for the non-utilisation of funds as planning and selection of funds are done by the zilla parishad committee.

“If the ZP committee had acted on time, then we could have implemented the projects quickly… However the projects were approved only in December and January by the committee, leaving us with only a couple of months to spend the money on the projects,” Meena told ET. He said that he had spent 25% of the total funds, and not 2.5% as alleged.