The share of social sector expenditure in total outlay of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh declined substantially during last three years while that of Chhattisgarh and Delhi showed significant growth, according to a Reserve Bank of India report.

The share of social sector expenditure of West Bengal in total expenditure declined from 34.1 per cent in 2001-02 to 26.3 per cent in budgeted estimates for 2003-04, Reserve Bank of India said in the 'State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2003-04' released in Mumbai on Monday.

The spending on social sector of Uttar Pradesh was down by 6.9 per cent from 32.2 per cent in 2001-02 to 25.3 per cent in 2003-04, it said.

The expenditure in the case of national capital territory of Delhi went up from 34.9 per cent in 2001-02 to 40.2 per cent in 2003-04, the central bank report said.

Chhattisgarh raised its expenditure on social sector from 43.3 per cent FY-02 to 48.2 per cent in FY-04.

The RBI said though social sector expenditure of states has shown rising trend in the recent years in absolute terms, it declined during 2002-03.

The share of social expenditure of all states declined from 35 per cent in 2001-02 to 33.5 per cent in 2003-04, it added.