The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers has taken strong exceptions to the planning commission's lackadaisical approach in sanctioning adequate funds for the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), even within the recommended outlay for the 11th Five Year Plan.

Even as the 11th Five Year Plan has recommended an outlay of Rs 1,396.17 crore for the Department of Pharmaceuticals for the period from 2007 to 2012, the allocation for the first three years – from 2007 to 2010 – was a meagre Rs 402.27 crore, which is less than 30 per cent of the total plan allocation.

The situation is such that, an amount of Rs 993.90 crore or almost 72 per cent of the outlay will have to be released and spent under plan expenditure during the years 2010-11 and 2011-12. The department outlay for these two years is Rs 559.70 crore for the next financial year and Rs 434.20 crore for the year 2011-12. The uneven allocation of resources has created a lopsided planning for the activities of DoP, comments a recent report from the Committee.

Lambasting the Planning Commission for its apathetic approach in budget allocation for the DoP, the committee headed by Ananth Kumar, member of parliament, said, “The committee regret to conclude that the approach of the Planning Commission in the instant case has been totally unrealistic and not conducive at all to enable the Department of Pharmaceuticals to achieve the expected plan targets.”

The Committee also conveyed to the Planning Commission that it should address this issue in all its seriousness and ensure that the outlays are sanctioned in the remaining two years of the plan so that the DoP can plan and utilize the resources for achieving the laid down targets.

Answering to the queries by the committee, the DoP contended that though it has sought a higher allocation of Rs 302 crore for the year 2009-10, the Planning Commission has only sanctioned Rs 155.25 crore for the year. The allocation was of the same amount for the year 2008-09 even as it was only meagre Rs 91.77 crore for 2007-08, where the outlays sanctioned were below the amounts proposed by the department. The Planning Commission conveyed to the DoP that it can only sanction the said amount, considering the prevailing economic scenario and budget constraints.