The State should have by now got almost Rs 400 crore under the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) but the Centre has been dragging its feet since the past three months.

The non-release of funds for the schemes on which the State has already begun spending has badly upset the financial position of the State.

The Chief Minister is understood to have spoken to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Union Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi about the projects today and expressed resentment over the undue delay in approving the schemes.

The State Government has included the two programmes, both of them sponsored by the Centre, in the World Bank-aided AP Economic Restructuring Project(APERP) so that more funds would be made available (from the Union government as well as the bank). But the tie-up has to be approved by the Union Cabinet and only then would the Centre release its share.

The total outlay for APERP is Rs 3,300 crore spread over a period of five years. Of this, the outlay for primary education is Rs 674 crore and Rs 413 crore for ICDS.

According to sources here, the integration of DPEP and ICDS with the restructuring project has been cleared at the official level in Delhi and the file was sent to Murli Manohar Joshi, where it has been pending.

The Union minister reportedly assured Naidu during the telephonic talk this morning that he would immediately put it up before the Cabinet. With the Prime Minister too briefed about the matter, the State Government is hopeful that the Cabinet would clear the projects at its next meeting within a week.

The State landed in a big overdraft with the RBI a fortnight ago as it had spent the available resources hoping to secure Rs 400crore from the Centre. With great difficulty, the State managed to come out of the overdraft position within the stipulated 10 working days.

The situation was so bad that verbal instructions were issued to treasuries to stop all payment, except those relating to employees. The restrictions were lifted a couple of days ago after the overdraft was cleared.