February 27, 2002

    The Minister for Rural Development Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has urged the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA’s) to open separate accounts in nationalised banks for each of the schemes being implemented by them, where the money for the schemes will be remitted to directly. He said State treasuries will not be used for this purpose henceforth. He was speaking after releasing a booklet on the Accounting Procedure for DRDA’s/Societies here today. The new procedure spells out the system to be adopted by the DRDAs and other Agencies, including Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the districts in respect of the funds, which are directly being remitted by the Ministry. With the new procedure, there will be no scope for diversion of funds from one scheme to other scheme, he added. Shri Naidu also hoped that more accountability and transparency would be brought into the functioning of DRDAs.

    With this, the Accounting Procedures have been simplified and made more rigorous with a view to facilitate the funds flow to the Implementing Agencies in the field and also for monitoring the expenditure. The system for maintenance of accounts by the DRDAs has been streamlined. And expenditure under each scheme has been segregated with insistence on separate bank account. Rigour has been introduced in the transfer of funds to the PRIs at the Block and Village levels. And arrangement for maintenance of Bank Accounts and their reconciliation have been included. The monitoring of Assets created under various RD Programmes, the reports to be sent from the field, the duties and responsibilities of key personnel have also been prescribed. The objective is to continue all efforts to further improve and rationalise the procedure for the implementation of RD programmes. Since consultations have been held with the field agencies in particular, it is expected that this will be a meaningful contribution.