DPC meeting stressed spending Rs 500 crore in five months

The guardian minister Sandeepan Bhumre has directed the heads of various departments (HoDs) to submit the proposals seeking administrative sanction by October 31. It may be noted that the DPC meeting was held for the first time in five months after he was appointed guardian minister. Of the total proposals, the district administration had received a fund of Rs 148 crore.

The DPC meeting was also attended by the union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad, state's co-operative minister Atul Save, leader of opposition in Legislative Council Ambadas Danve, MP Imtiaz Jaleel, MLAs Sanjay Shirsaat, Pradeep Jaiswal, Haribhau Bagade, Prashant Bamb, Udaysingh Rajput, Narayan Kuche, MLCs Vikram Kale, Satish Chavan, district collector Astik Kumar Pandey, Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator Abhijeet Chaudhari, Zilla Parishad chief executive officer Vikas Meena, commissioner of police Nikhil Gupta, superintendent of police (SP) Manish Kalvaniya, district planning officer Sheetal Mahale and other HoDs participated in the meeting. Chavan, Shirsaat and Bamb submitted their memorandums of demands and left the meeting due to their other engagements.

The guardian minister said, “ The meeting today okays sanctioning of Rs 40 crore for the installation of power transformers in the rural parts of the district. He recommended frequent checkups of the transformers in the periphery when any of the transformers get defunct. The decision upon sparing land for crematoriums, to start the construction of classrooms in the schools has also been decided. The proposal of fixing 3,000 Kolhapuri Type (KT) weirs has also been taken in the meeting.”

Bhumre added the outlay of the DPC is Rs 500 crore. Hence, the instructions have been made to release funds as per the demand of each department and ensure the expenditure as early as possible. We have made no changes to the previously planned works. Meanwhile, the administration has been instructed to conduct panchnamas of the crop losses due to the recent downpour.

Fear of funds misuse

“Today's meeting has ended up without taking any concrete decisions. The help to the farmers affected by the natural calamity (heavy rainfall) failed to reach them. A discussion was expected to be held upon it. The DPC meeting had not been held for the past seven months. The focus of planning was to make expenditures in a hurry. I fear that the expenditure could be made at the wrong place in a hurry. There is a need to maintain transparency of the financial planning made till March 31,” said the MLC Ambadas Danve.

Department-wise provision of fund

Agriculture: Rs 34 crore

Rural Development: Rs 21 crore

Social Welfare Schemes: Rs 38 crore

Energy Development: Rs 22 crore

Industries and Mining: Rs 39 crore

Development of Roads and Bridges: Rs 102 crore

Tourism Development: Rs 20 crore

New Schemes: Rs 20 crore

Total funds released so far: Rs 148 crore.

Collectorate turns into a security camp

It may be noted that the Shiv Sena rebel MLAs are provided police protection since the inception of the Shinde-led Group and BJP government in the state. The common visitors at the collectorate were taken aback and experienced a little inconvenience due to the presence of MLAs, their security personnel and the deployment of regular police personnel at the collectorate campus. The place had got developed into a Cantonment.

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Referring to the bye-poll in Andheri where the BJP candidate withdrew the nomination, Save said the decision has not been taken out of fear, but get elect the heir of the previous (deceased) MLA unopposed. We are not affected by an increase of one MLA in their camp. It is the issue of sympathy. Bhumre said to wait and watch the happenings till 2024. Karad said, “ There was a demand from all the spheres to conduct the election unopposed. Hence the decision was taken to withdraw the nomination.”