NEW DELHI, July 19 ? Assam along with other north-eastern States are forever crying for additional allocation from the Non-Lapsable Pool of Central Resources (NLPCR) but they have fallen far short in utilising the allocated funds. The details of the performances of the north-eastern States (NES) makes an interesting reading as barring Tripura, all have been left with unspent funds. Assam?s performance was the worst as bulk of the allocated funds were left unutilised. During the last fiscal the State was released Rs 113.94 crore out of NLCPR but it managed to spend only Rs 1.84 crore. Its performance during 2003-2004 was perhaps the worst if compared with two previous financial years when it managed to utilise substantial amount of the allocated funds. Out of the allocation of Rs 140.07 crore in 2002-2003 and Rs 89.19 crore in 2001-2002, Assam utilised Rs 76.09 crore and Rs 62.32 crore respectively.
It was no surprise, therefore, that DONER has so far not released any funds for the 12 prioritised projects worth Rs 464.20 crore submitted by Assam Government for funding. This was confirmed in reply to a question tabled by Karnendu Bhattacharjee, when the Minister DONER confirming receipt of the list of projects, disclosed that no funds were released for them. Project proposals ranged from public works, water supply schemes to power, water resources and health and family welfare projects. The State currently has 107 ongoing projects, while 12 were completed. In the North-east a total number of 266 projects are going on and in the last fiscal some 97 were completed.
During the last three financial years the Ministry Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) released Rs 491.57 crore (2001-2002), Rs 550 crore (2002-2003) and Rs 550 crore (2003-2004) to the eight NES. Performance of Tripura was best among the NES as it managed to utilise Rs 66.70 crore of the allocated Rs 69.87 crore. In a Rajya Sabha written reply to a question tabled by Rishang Keishing, Minister DONER, PR Kyndiah said that the primary responsibility for proper utilisation of NLCPR fund lay with the State Government concerned. He said the States were advised to report the progress of implementation of the NLCPR projects on a quarterly basis, Chief Secretaries of the States were asked to hold quarterly review meetings and States were directed to nominate a nodal officer for each projects to monitor them.
Besides at the instance of Ministry DONER concurrent evaluation of some NLCPR projects has also been done by Comptroller and Auditor General, the Minister said.
Meanwhile, in reply to a separate question put by UG Brahma, the Minister revealed that 14 projects worth Rs 154.42 crore for Bodoland Territorial Council areas have been retained for techno-economic examination for the current fiscal year. The project proposals included construction of 100 bedded hospital and nursing college, protection of Ranisundari Dadabeel and Chotonilbari areas from erosion of River Aye to improvement and strengthening and training of river Sankosh among others.