India, March 18 -- A Parliamentary panel has asked the Statistics Ministry to ensure optimum utilisation of allocated funds and advised it to request supplementary demands, if needed.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, in its Thirty-Fifth Report - 'Demands for Grants (2026-27)' of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, noted the submission of the ministry that the budgetary allocations are not sufficient to meet the requirements of various schemes like the Support for Statistical Strengthening Scheme(SSS), among others.

The panel noted that the ministry has been allocated only INR 4,522.25 crore against its projected Budgetary demand of INR 5,826.11 crore.The ministry itself has admitted that reduced fund...