Department is alive, but not kicking

BHUBANESWAR: Even after two decades of its creation, the Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department has failed to justify its existence.Even as the State is self-sufficient in foodgrain production, it is yet to become so on milk, fish and meat fronts.Though it has managed to meet the milk requirement largely due to unorganised milk producers, the State is heavily dependant on the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for fish and eggs.The State Government formulated a Livestock Policy in 2002 to optimise the livestock sector in the socio-economic growth of the rural population.The policy framework was to be translated into action in two phases though perspective plans for the Tenth Plan (2002-2007) and Eleventh Plan (2007-12).However, the perspective plan, as desired by the Planning Commission, was not prepared by the Department till the end of the last financial year.The Plan panel of the Centre has made it mandatory for the states to submit the annual plan along with perspective plans for the current fiveyear plan.A review of the budgetary provisions made and the expenditure incurred by the Department by the chief controlling officer of the CAG revealed that nearly ` 110 crore out of the budgetary support was surrendered to the Government during 2005 and 2010.Supplementary budget of ` 58.38 crore was sanctioned to the Department during this period when the Department was unable to utilise normal budgetary allocation.The Department surrendered ` 41.86 crore of the supplementary allocation to the Government.In 2008, the Centre provided ` 6.24 crore to the Agriculture Department (since Fisheries and Animal Resources Development are allied activities and part of the Agriculture Ministry) under Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana (RKVY) for construction of 26 district diagnostic laboratories (DDLs) and purchase of equipment.While equipment worth ` 3.90 crore was procured for all the district laboratories, only 16 DDL buildings were handed over to the CDVOs till April last year.Ironically, not a single diagnostic laboratory is functional till date.The entire expenditure by the Government went down the drain.Finance is definitely not a constraint as the Department is unable to utilise the budgetary allocation.However, the Government has not been able to provide health cover to the livestock.There are only 2,939 livestock centres in the State having 6,234 gram panchayats.More than 700 livestock inspector posts are lying vacant as against a sanctioned strength of 3,030.