Submit papers so Uttar Pradesh gets full central funds, departments told

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh needs all the money it can get, so ensure 100% funds of central schemes come from Delhi to Lucknow and similar schemes run by the state are scrapped to save money, the Yogi Adityanath government has instructed its departments.

Ahead of the first budget to be presented by the new BJP government, UP’s finance secretary Anoop Chandra Pandey has sent a six-point missive to all departments on how to “increase the funds with the state and also ensure savings”.

The government recently announced a Rs 36,500 crore loan waiver for farmers and is spending nearly Rs 2,000 crore till June 15 on repairing all roads in UP, straining resources of the state.

All secretaries have been asked to assess why the state government did not receive full funds under various central schemes in 2016-17 under the Akhilesh Yadav regime and lay out the reasons for the same before the state finance department.

“For the financial year 2017-18, all relevant utilisation certificates should be submitted to the Centre on time so that 100% of funds under central schemes are received,” the state finance secretary said in his letter on May 19. “Similar schemes to the Centre are being run by the state too – as far as possible, only such central schemes should be allowed to run so that the burden on the state exchequer is reduced.”

Many such state schemes started by the previous government could be scrapped in the upcoming state budget, including a state-run housing scheme and insurance schemes. The Adityanath government has specified that all beneficiaries of central schemes should get the benefit through direct benefit transfer and public financial management system directly into their bank accounts.

The state finance secretary said in the letter that other cost-cutting measures be undertaken as well, such as constructing any new official buildings only once earlier built buildings report full occupancy and utilisation, no repeated test runs and trials of government projects, and ensuring roll-out of the project after the first test run.