By Our Reporter
Shillong: The rise in the poverty index in the North East by 3.5 per cent is not due to funds constraints but due to under utilization and proper mobilization of funds, former principal of Cotton College, Guwahati Dilip K Barua said.
“Compared to the rest of the country where the poverty rate has decreased by 7.8 per cent in 2005-06 and 2008-09, the rise in poverty levels in the North East is a matter of grave concern,” Barua stated.
The former college principal was addressing a session on the last day of the Basin Development Week organized by the State Government at Yojana Bhavan, Meghalaya Secretariat here on Thursday.
While giving a detailed presentation of the challenges for governance in North East, Barua said non-availability of funds is not the issue but inability to utilize the funds available, is a major issue in the region.
Stressing on ‘corruption’ as the root cause of under-development, Barua said, “Corruption has been morally accepted and as per the CAG reports; it indicates that there is a culture of illegalities and double talks.”
He stated that government departments should be made to answer all queries raised by the CAG. “Only then can we address the loopholes in governance,” he observed.
He further went on to say that there are no strong and concrete databases maintained by either the state government or the North Eastern Council. “If data is collected and maintained well, then lots can be done in addressing people’s grievances,” he added.
The former college principal also stressed on the need for capacity building at various levels while involving community participation and stated that the level of the community should be raised.
He also made a plea to the state government for ‘Zero-based budgeting’ stating, “There is a need to fulfill the physical targets and the government should not only stress on incremental budgeting but zero-based budgeting,” he said.
Turning to the prevalence of corruption in the implementation of various state and central schemes, Barua said, “In North East, there are multiple laws and acts but these are enforced in the breach”.
He also said delays in implementation, lack of monitoring of schemes, non-involvement of stakeholders in the design and implementation of schemes also contributes to this problem.
Meanwhile, speaking on the role of citizens in strengthening government anti-corruption framework, member of the Transparency International Anupama Jha pointed out that out of the 183 countries in the world considered to be under the prefix of extreme corruption, India stands at the 95th position.
Stating that corruption is a failure in governance, Jha said an engagement between the government and civil societies is very important. “They should engage in a constructive dialogue and not back-stab each other,” she stated.
Referring to Anna Hazare’s movement as a powerful movement to invoke political will, Jha said movements like these are strong enough to invoke the government to implement rules as per public’s interest.
She also said that corruption is more on the supply side and pointed out that only public corruption is brought to the limelight while private corruption remains ignored.
Meanwhile, Sandeep Varma from the Defence department, Government of India spoke at length on the topic of procurement planning, transparency and competition.