The Bihar government has released Rs 213 crore towards the payment of honorarium to its employees and contractual workers involved in conducting the caste-based survey, a report of which was released earlier this week.
The general administration department that oversaw the survey released the amount to all districts in the state through RTGS (real-time gross settlement). The department’s deputy secretary Rajnish Kumar sent a letter in this regard to all the 38 concerned
district magistrates.
According to the letter, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, Patna tops the chart with Rs 11.5 crore allotted for the purpose of payment to the employees. Muzaffarpur with Rs 10.2 crore, East Champaran with Rs 9.6 crore, Gaya with Rs 9.3 crore and Madhubani with Rs 8.67 crore closely follow the state capital. Sheikhpura, which is counted among the smallest districts, has been provided just Rs 1.2 crore against its expenses.
The Bihar government had estimated an expenditure of Rs 500 crore on the survey work and had provisioned to meet it from the state contingency fund.
While government schoolteachers formed the core of the caste-based survey work and were entrusted with the fieldwork, a large number of government officials, data entry operators and others were also engaged in giving it the final shape. The socio-economic report of the survey is yet to be made public.
“The release of the funds should not be understood as the approval of expenditure. The payment should be done only after being completely satisfied by the counting work and its necessity,” the letter dated October 5, says.
The missive has also cautioned the district magistrates to make payments only after a thorough examination and asserts that the responsibility for any fake or irregular payment would fall on the concerned officials. It also calls for strict following of the Bihar budget rules, budget manual and other relevant financial provisions.
“It would be compulsory to timely provide the utilisation certificate of the amount,” the letter said.
