UDAY funds not diverted: State

The state finance department on Thursday denied that any funds from the sale of UDAY bonds were diverted for other purposes.

Accepting that funds for some schemes were not released and some bills remain pending, the finance department, in a rejoinder to a news report published in these columns, said that the state government has released `15,251.16 crore to the energy department in 2016-17 while the Budget allocation was `4,470.10 crore.

“So, it is not appropriate to say that funds generated from sale of UDAY bonds have been diverted,” the statement said.

However, the statement did not explain why TSTransco had written to the government requesting release of the balance `1,423 crore UDAY bonds funds.

Regarding Budget allocations not being released to some corporations, the finance department said that there was no dearth of funds, but the departments concerned are in the process of formulating the schemes and the funds will be released as and when requisitioned, without any delay.

Regarding pending bills, the finance department said that there will always be some pending bills for payment since the process is continuous and bills are cleared after due verification and audit and said that reports of funds from Centrally-sponsored schemes being diverted were baseless.