SHILLONG, Feb 15 – While the most common refrain of the North Eastern Chief Ministers is that there is no fund for development, hundreds of crores of rupees earmarked for rural development go begging in the North East for want of utilisation. Take the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) of the Union Ministry of Rural Development. Against the All India average release of over 57 per cent, releases in the case of the NE States, with the exception of Sikkim and Tripura, are far below this average. While Sikkim tops in NE with 100 per cent release, Nagaland is at the bottom with barely 26 per cent.
According to a Ministry report as on February 4, the allocation under EAS for the year 2001-02 for Arunachal was Rs 519.21 lakh of which only Rs 259.60 lakh has been released. While the first instalment was released to all districts, the second was not released to four districts due to non-receipt of proposals. Same is the case with Assam, the biggest State in the region. Against an allocation of Rs 124.89 crore, the release was about Rs 62.44 crore. Here also, the second instalment was not released to any district due to non-receipt of proposals. In the same way, the second instalment has not been released to Manipur for similar reasons.
In Meghalaya’s case, the first instalment has been released to all districts except East Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills due to discrepancies in proposals. The second instalment too has not been released to any district due to non-receipt of proposals from two districts, audit report not enclosed for three districts and less expenditure in two districts. Of the allocation of Rs 234.48 lakh for Mizoram, only Rs 117.24 lakh has been released. The second instalment could not be released to any district as proposals are under process. The worst case is Nagaland. Here, even the first instalment was not released to four districts due to non-receipt of utilisation certificate from four district rural development agencies (DRDAs). The second instalment has not been released to any district due to non-receipt of proposals or proposals received only recently.
In marked contrast are cases of Tripura and Sikkim. In the former, first and second instalments of Rs 816.74 lakh each have been released to all districts. In the case of Sikkim, the two instalments of Rs 130 lakh (approx) each have been released. It is unlikely, the balance of the allocation for the North East would be released with the Union Minister for Rural Development M Venkaiah Naidu recently reiterating the Ministry’s decision that no release of funds for different programmes would henceforth take place in the month of March. This decision is designed to resolve the problem of large opening balances in the month of April, since it is not feasible to execute and complete works when the funds are released in March.
No wonder the Union Minister at a recent review meeting advised the States to regularly interact with the Ministry so as to ensure that the funds for different programmes were duly claimed and expenditure incurred in time. He also called for ‘increased levels of transparency’ and ‘awareness’ to bring about further improvement in the system as a whole. Emphasizing efficient and timely utilization of funds, Naidu said “it was imperative to generate public awareness on a nation wide scale in respect of various schemes and programmes, which, in turn, would bring about greater participation of the people at large and help in activating the elected bodies to enhance performance levels.” The Union Minister revealed that the non-implementation of the Ministry’s “four point programme” viz. “creating awareness”, “transparency”, “people’s participation” and “accountability through social audit” has been noticed in many States which has hampered implementation of the Ministry’s programmes.