The Hindu : Funds to NE States: Centre to contribute more

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Friday, Aug 01, 2003

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Funds to NE States: Centre to contribute more

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 31. The Rural Development Ministry has proposed to increase its ratio of funds to the North Eastern States for various developmental schemes. An increase in the Ministry's share of allocation would mean a lesser contribution from the States. The proposal is to be put up for the Cabinet approval shortly.

The North Eastern States have been facing problems in meeting their share of funds against Central Government releases, as a result of which arrears have been accumulating. As of now, the State's share of funds for most of its developmental schemes is 25 per cent as against 75 per cent by the Rural Development Ministry. And, if the Ministry's proposal were accepted, the Centre would release 90 per cent of the funds while the remaining would be the State's share.

The Centre has made it mandatory for all the Ministries to allocate 10 per cent of the total outlay for the eight States in the region, and to ensure that the unutilised funds do not lapse, a non-lapsable central pool of resources has been created into which are credited all unutilised funds contributed by the Centre with which the State Governments can take up various projects. An amount of Rs. 29.64 crores was transferred to this pool in 2001-02.

Of the major developmental schemes being implemented under the Rural Development Ministry, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and Computerisation of Land Records are fully sponsored by the Centre. The ratio of shares under the Indira Awaz Yojana and the Swaran Jayanti Swarozgar Yojana of the Centre and State is 75:25, while the cost of implementation of the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme is shared equally.

In the current financial year, against the total Central share of Rs. 1,688.96 crores, the States could claim only Rs. 728.17 crores. Against the total funds available of Rs. 1,190.09 crores (including Rs. 362.86 crores of opening balance), these States utilised only Rs. 380.99 crores, constituting only 32 per cent. Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have utilised only about 11 per cent of the total funds available with them. Tripura, however, has been an exception where the funds utilisation figure stands at 75 per cent followed by Assam, which has spent about 35 per cent.

The eight North Eastern States comprise Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.

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