Shillong, Feb 8: The budget allocation of NEC has dwindled as funds absorption in the North East was not upto the mark.
Secretary of the North Eastern Council (NEC) K Moses Chalai told reporters that efforts are being put in to improve the funds absorption capacity by the NE states.
Chalai admitted that the absorption capacity in the North East region is not upto the mark.
“Of late we have seen the states are also gearing up. Unless they move fast, we also cannot move fast, so it is kind of interlink somewhere but I would like to say that a lot of effort is being put and some improvement is there,” he said.
He said, “So in the days to come, this is likely to improve. For instance, the DoNER used to allocate funds just more or less than Rs 3,000 crore but this year with the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East Region (PM-DevINE) Scheme, it has come to Rs 6,000 crore. What I am trying to say is that somewhere the government of India is realising that we can do better but again transition issues are there but I hope we are now going to the next level where the budget is going to be much bigger and for that everyone including NEC needs to work more.”
Performance
Of the NE States, the NEC secretary said, “I shouldn’t take names but all the States are not alike but improvement is happening and the new fund flow system is not through the state treasury or state finance department, it goes directly to the vendor. Now it will depend on the concerned department and the vendor how they can quickly execute the work. I would still say yes it is not alike. It is not fair for me to take names – some of them can do better.”
Regarding Meghalaya, Chalai said, “Generally speaking, in Meghalaya, all departments are also not alike, some departments are responsive, some departments sometimes tend to kind of drag on. So within the State also all departments are not alike. I understand the management and monitoring system of the Meghalaya government has picked up a bit and so they should do better in the days to come.”
