KOCHI: District Collector P I Sheik Pareeth on Thursday came down heavily on the officials concerned for not utilising the fund allocated for the coastal area development scheme. An amount of Rs 5 crore was allotted by the state government two years ago through the Fisheries department, of which only Rs 1.55 crore has been spent so far. The fund was allocated to carry out 56 developmental projects in the coastal areas, with special stress given on sectors like hospitals, schools and anganwadis. However, only sixteen projects were completed, so far.The collector pointed out that there are many panchayats that have not started utilising the fund yet. Mattanchery was given an amount of Rs 43.33 lakh, of which Rs 24.68 lakh was spent for the development of hospitals for women and children. Karuvelippadi Taluk spent a sum of Rs 2.43 lakh out of the allotted Rs 16.63 lakh.“Ezhikkara Primary health centre has not even started spending Rs 2.80 lakh allocated to it,” the Collector said. According to him, an amount of Rs 2.15 crore has been allocated for the hospital sector. But only Rs 77 lakh has been utilised so for. The Collector pointed out that the anganwadi sector has been neglected by the concerned authorities. Chittattukara panchayat was the only exception, he pointed out. “Kumbalangi, Chellanam, Pallippuram, Vadakkekkara, Puthenvelikkara, Ezhikkara have not taken any initiative to utilise the fund allocated for the anganwadi sector,” he said.The Collector warned that such callousness from the authorities shall not be tolerated. He warned that if the officials concerned did not take steps to effectively utilise the amount, the amount will be diverted to other departments that are in dire need of funds. Fisheries deputy director E J George Kutty and deputy director of education M D Murali were also present.
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