The Mamata Banerjee government has asked all departments that have failed to spend funds allotted for development schemes to return the unused money by January 31 so that the cash can be re-allotted for programmes that require more resources.

The move suggests the government wants to ensure that some popular schemes announced by it don’t face a cash crunch ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The unused funds will have to be sent back to the finance department.

“Barring 13 departments such as agriculture, PWD, disaster management, panchayat and housing, the majority of the 52 departments are unlikely to be able to spend their budgetary allotments. If these departments return their unused funds, the state could set up a fund of around Rs 3,000 crore,” said a senior official.

With the additional corpus, sources said the government can take up repairs of more roads in rural areas and fund the Krishak Bandhu scheme. The plan, announced in December, entitles farmers to annual grants of Rs 5,000 per acre.

“With the unspent amount, the state can start the scheme by the end of February. The ruling Trinamul will try to have the scheme going before (the Lok Sabha) election notification is issued in late February or early March,” said an official.

According to a government notification, all departments must assess how much they will be able to use by March and return the balance to the finance department.

“In case departments have sent funds to the district level and found that the amounts will not be used by the end of this financial year, the funds will have to be recalled and returned to the finance department,” said an official.

Sources said a similar exercise was undertaken last year when all departments were asked to return funds unspent for the past few years. “A sum of Rs 2,500 crore was returned to the finance department. Several schemes, including construction of bridges and repairs of roads, were undertaken with these funds,” said an official.

Sources said the government does not want to leave any promise unfulfilled and would like to make sure the ball starts rolling on all development initiatives announced by the chief minister during the year. “This (unspent funds) will be a useful kitty before the general election,” said another official.