Parliamentary panel flags under-utilisation of funds given in pandemic

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour has raised concerns over the Labour and Employment Ministry missing physical targets for schemes and asked the Ministry to look into why it was unable to use funds allocated to it, particularly during the pandemic, in an optimal way.

In its report on the demand for grants for 2021-2022 that was presented in Parliament on Tuesday, the panel said: “The Committee also desires that the Ministry seriously look into the infrastructural or procedural constraints impeding optimal utilisation of funds especially made available during the pandemic (sic).” The report said there had been an increase in the allocation for the Ministry from ₹12,065.49 crore in the Budget Estimate (BE) to ₹13,719.56 crore in the Revised Estimate (RE) in 2020-2021 due to the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) during the pandemic to boost the economy.