47 percent of allotted funds received

Even as Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram is set to monitor the progress of Centrally Sponsored schemes (CSS) at a meeting of Chief ministers of southern states at Bengalu­ru on Tuesday, a review of the Union territory of Puducherry shows that it has received 47 per cent of the total allocated grant of  `90 crore, in the first six months.

According to government sources, Rs 43.23 crore of the Rs 90 crore CSS grant allocated in the Rs 5,540 crore gross budget for Puducherry had been received by the Union Territory till October.

An amount of Rs 14.04 crore had been released in May, Rs 7.68 crore in June, Rs 3.57 crore in July, Rs 3.82 crore in August, Rs 13.77 crore in September and Rs 35 lakh in October. Rs 35 lakh had been released to the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare got Rs 11.76 crore, while the National AIDS Control Programme (III) got Rs 3.27 crore, Department of Higher Education Rs 8 lakh and the Ministry of Youth Affairs got Rs 12.66 lakh for National Service Scheme.

The UT got a grant of Rs 7.21 crore for School Education and Literacy, while The Ministry of Labour and Employment was granted Rs 32.90 lakh. Rs 8.14 crore has been released to the department of rural development.

The  Ministry of Social Justice and employment  has been given Rs 1.29 crore. This included Rs 80 lakh for implementation of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1995 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of atrocities) Act, 1989. The Ministry of Women and Child development got Rs 3.83 crore,  including Rs 3.62 crore for Integrated Child Development services and Rs 20.88 lakh for the Rajiv Gandhi scheme for empowerment of adolescent girls.