SHILLONG, Dec 23? Despite increasing financial assistance from the Centre, financial condition of most States in the north eastern region has deteriorated over the years. The observation is based on impact-cum-evaluation studies made by professional bodies on as many as 18 major NEC projects implemented in the region involving the investment of several thousand crores of rupees.
A major area of concern, as pointed out by the studies, is that the major chunk of the resources of the States are being used for non-plan expenditures which are mostly unproductive.
Making the findings public at a Press conference here this evening, NEC Secretary, Dr Kamal Taori lamented ?implementation of schemes and projects sponsored by the Council has not been efficient and has suffered many shortcomings?. The NEC since its inception, has sponsored various developmental schemes and infrastructure projects in the region.
?The primary objective of commissioning the impact-cum-evaluation studies was to ascertain how effective has been the investments made in various sectors?, Dr Taori said. Accordingly, two sets of studies were commissioned. One for evaluating the impact of completed projects and the other for evaluating the progress and implementation of ongoing projects.
The studies also brought up several other areas of concern. They showed that the States in the North East are administratively weak with little or no system of scientific monitoring of projects. Most States are slow to adapt to techniques on administration and initiating reforms. Performance of implementing agencies has been unimpressive and leaves much to be desired. Consequently, most projects have been hit by time and cost over-runs.
Citing some such cases, NEC Financial Adviser, UN Majhi, said that the Ranganadi hydel project took ten years to be executed. Besides a time over-run, the project cost went up to over Rs 1500 crore against the initial project cost of around Rs 500 crore.
?There have been stupendous cost over-runs even in road projects with 9th plan projects still not completed. Normally, a road project should be commissioned in about three-four years,? he informed.
The accepted cost escalation in projects is about seven per cent annually. But several projects in the region have recorded up to 300 per cent cost escalation. Some of the major projects covered by the study included Doyang and Ranganadi hydel projects, Rokhia gas thermal project in Tripura, North Eastern Police Academy, improvement of Dhodar Ali Road in Assam, Regional College of Nursing, Guwahati and Regional Dental College, Guwahati. An impact-cum-evaluation study was also commissioned into the ?functioning and working of the NEC since inception.?