Livelihoods: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour has raised concerns over the under-utilisation of funds in the various schemes of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
The panel observed that the under-utilisation of funds by nearly half the allocated budget had impacted the performance of certain schemes thereby defeating the purpose for which they were set up, namely to benefit vulnerable groups. It added that this was particularly distressing in a year where large groups of people had been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its report that was presented in Parliament on March 16th, the panel said that although the ministry’s expenditure for the current fiscal was increased on account of the launch of Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), it could only spend about 52.8 percent of the funds till March 15th.
Following the roll out of PMGKY, the ministry’s allocation was revised upwards from the budget estimate of INR 12,065.49 crore to INR 13,719.56 crore for 2020-2021. This was done to boost the economy during the COVID-19 crisis, the report stated.
In addition to this, the INR 1,000 crore allocated for the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY) scheme in 2020-2021 saw zero utilisation “due to non-dispersal of funds”.
The report further expressed concern over the ministry’s inability to meet physical targets in many major schemes. “While some schemes, like the coaching-cum-guidance centres for the SCs/STs, had achieved the targets, others, like the training centres for working children and the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan Yojana (PMSYM), which achieved 1.18 lakh enrolments out of the target of 2 crore new enrolments, had not.”
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