A sum of Rs 3988 crore has been allocated to the Department of Ayush for the current Five Year Plan, even as under-utilisation of funds continued to fox the department at a time when Indian systems of medicine are getting unprecedented global attention and in need of decisive support from the authorities.

Against a projection of Rs 4102 crore by the department for implementation of existing schemes and launching of new schemes during the Eleventh Plan, a plan outlay of Rs 3988 crore has been given by the Planning Commission. The Plan component in the current year's budgetary allocation of Rs 623 crore is Rs 534 crore.

However, the statistics by the department showed that one-third of the allocation for the Tenth Plan was not utilized. Out of the total Rs 1194.60 crore, only Rs 1030.15 crore could be utilized by the end of the period. The initial allocation for the last three years had to be brought down in at the revised estimation stage and even the reduced allocation also remained under-utilised.

Sources said that Rs 82 crore allocated for new institutions/schemes during the last Plan could not be utilized due to delay in approvals of All India Institute of Ayurveda (Rs 10 crore), the North Eastern Institute of Folk Medicine/North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy (Rs 15 crore), common facilities for Ayush Industry Clusters (Rs 27 crore) and the new Centralized Scheme of Cultivation and Processing of Medicinal Plants (Rs 30 crore). Out of the eight schemes launched for implementation during Eleventh Plan period, financial achievement in respect of as many as six schemes has been found below the desired level in the first year of their implementation and two are yet to be sanctioned.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has recently come down on the under-utilisation of the funds. ``The Committee feels that had the Department done the proper planning and preparatory exercise in respect of these new Schemes, the utilization status would not have been so discouraging. The Committee, therefore, recommends to the Department to ensure that such a situation does not arise in 2008-09 and the funds earmarked for the intended purposes are fully utilized during the current fiscal year,'' panel report said.