Conrad rues delay in approval of schemes, wrong guidelines
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has expressed concern over North Eastern Council (NEC) not being able to take up new projects owing to resource constraints.
Speaking at the 68th plenary session of NEC in Guwahati on Sunday, he said in the recent past, the council has not been able to take up new projects owing to resource constraints.
He suggested that the budget of the NEC should be increased to about Rs 2000 crore annually to enable it to fulfill its mandate of promoting development of the North East so that NER vision of 2020 providing for comprehensive development of the region will not remain just a pipedream.
He said against the allocation of Rs 4500 crore approved by the Union Cabinet for the schemes of NEC for the period from 2017-20, only Rs 19 crore was left for new NEC projects.
He added that the rest of the money was allocated for clearing of committed liabilities of various ongoing projects and the lack of resources has constrained the NEC’s ability to fund new projects.
Meghalaya projects
put on hold
Sangma informed that the implementation of the projects sanctioned from April, 2017 has been put on hold by the NEC.
Out of 21 projects sanctioned for Meghalaya during 2017-18 and 2018-19, which have been duly recommended by the State Level Empowered Committee, NEC has so far allowed only seven projects to be continued.
“There has been no response, either from the Ministry of DoNER or the NEC on the remaining 14 projects in spite of repeated requests made by the state government.
These 14 projects are of critical importance to the state and include projects relating to road infrastructure, water supply, irrigation, rural entrepreneurship promotion and building schools,” he said.
He pointed out that the project for construction of the Rongjeng- Mangsang- Adokgre road is of particular importance.
He said that work on many of these 14 projects has already begun and the physical progress of work is almost 30 per cent in some.
Sangma added it will be impossible for the state government to implement these projects without the sanction and funding support from NEC and urged for their sanction and implementation.
Turning to the guidelines of the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), he expressed gladness that the state has received a total sanction of about Rs 175 crore for six vital infrastructure projects and it has already submitted additional projects of about Rs 300 crore.
Plea for review of guidelines
He urged the ministry of DoNER to sanction the additional list of projects submitted as well.
However, he said there is a need to relook at the guidelines of NESIDS to make the scheme more effective, firstly to lower limit of Rs 20 crore on the project size to about Rs 10 crore, so that small but significant projects can be taken up.
He added that lowering of the minimum cost of the project would also allow the state governments to take up more projects under the scheme.
Sangma said in case of road projects, NESIDS covers only those that connect tourist spots. “This provision needs to be relaxed so that we can invest in road connectivity in the broader sense,” he said.
The chief minister said another crucial issue is the inability of the ministries of the government of India to utilise the 10 per cent of their budget for schemes and programmes in the Northeastern states.
Protracted approval mechanism
Sangma said that another reform that is urgently needed is with regard to the process for approval of the projects submitted by the state governments to NEC.
He said the current process is long winding and hence time consuming leading to inordinate delays in project approval.
Currently clearances are required from four different committees.
The Project Identification Committee (PIC) chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of DoNER recommends the projects, the Sectoral Empowered Committee (SEC) chaired by Member, NEC vets and endorses the selected projects, the State Level Empowered Committee (SLEC) chaired by the Chief Secretary does the technical and economic appraisal of the DPRs and the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) chaired by the Secretary, DoNER appraises projects costing Rs 5 to Rs 15 crore.
“The current protracted approval mechanism needs to be rationalised. For instance, both the Project Identification Committee and the Standing Finance Committee may be chaired by the Secretary, NEC. This will facilitate expeditious identification, appraisal, approval and implementation of projects. Furthermore, the delegation of financial power to the Secretary, NEC may be adequately enhanced to empower NEC and to make its functioning effective,” Sangma said.
He added that the guidelines of the NEC need to be revised to incorporate several crucial sectors such as sports, school education, power, primary and secondary healthcare, irrigation, flood control and water supply, tourism and skill development.
He added that the council has to be empowered through providing bigger budgets, greater delegation of financial powers and increasing flexibility in sanctioning and implementing projects.