Funds unused,Budget cut for space dept

The department has been allocated Rs 5,615 crore as planned Budget,compared to Rs 5,700 crore that it had got last year.

The progress on the Indian space programmes showpiece projects,including the manned space mission,seem stuck with the department using only 60 per cent of its funds for the year 2011-12. As a result,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has cut the Budget of the Department of Space for the coming year.

The department has been allocated Rs 5,615 crore as planned Budget,compared to Rs 5,700 crore that it had got last year. The department could utilise only Rs 3,432 crore from its planned Budget. The biggest sufferers seem to be the satellite technology projects in which almost 60 per cent of the funds have remain unutilised.

These projects include a host of new technology earth observation missions like the Cartosat-3,EVNISAT,SCATSAT and others,work on which are running behind schedule.

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Only Rs 10.27 crore of the allocated Rs 65.64 crore to the manned space mission was utilised last year. Even the year before,in 2010-11,this mission had spent less than 10 per cent of the Budget allocated to it.

There has been a sharp drop in the money spent on space applications as well. Unlike the space programmes in many other countries,the Indian Space Research Organisation offers a variety of services for general public,like tele-education,tele-medicine,information services and disaster management support,which are much in demand. These are ongoing services and generally the Budgets are well utilised.

However,this year,out of the Rs 629 crore non-plan Budget,only Rs 377.82 crore was used.