LUCKNOW, Dec. 17 -- The Uttar Pradesh government's major departments have not been able to overall use even half of the budgetary funds in the first eight months of 2025-2026 from April 1, 2025, to November 30. As the average performance of various departments in terms of use of funds remains well below the halfway mark, the poor expenditure remains a cause of concern. "Yes, various major departments have been able to use only about 49% of the budgeted funds up to now. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath reviewed the progress on the utilisation of funds by various departments. He has asked the departments to expedite the use of funds to ensure that a large chunk is used before the end of the financial year," said a senior officer on condition of anonymity. Those aware of the development said although the state government has been able to bring about an improvement in its overall budget use performance marginally, most of its departments need to further accelerate the use of funds to reach the halfway mark. A scrutiny of the expenditure incurred by various departments (up to November 30, 2025) indicates that the energy department remains among the top with use of 60 percent of the budgeted funds. The women welfare department has also crossed the halfway mark using 64 percent utilisation of funds. The PWD, however, has been able to use only about 40 percent while the child development and the agriculture departments have used 44 percent and 41 percent of the budget funds respectively. The rural development department with 23 percent, the infrastructure and industrial development with 19%, food and civil supplies with 27 percent and urban development with 23% use of funds remain well behind the halfway mark. Namami Gange and rural water supply department has used around 15 percent of the budgeted funds. Various departments of the state government have also not been able to achieve targets for getting central assistance. The state home department has received 94.7% of central assistance while food and civil supplies and PWD have received 83.9% and 82.2% of central assistance respectively. The state rural development department has got 59.6% while child development and panchayati raj departments have got 49.9%, 46.4% respectively. Other departments those have received a considerable chunk of central assistance include Namami Gange and the rural water supply 45.2%, urban employment and poverty alleviation 32.1%, women welfare department 25.3% and energy department 23.2%....