SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has called for restoration of special block grants which is the entitlement of the Special Category states and asserted that the State government will engage the Centre on the issue of withdrawal of the Backward Regions Grants Fund (BGRF) as a scheme.
The chief minister was replying to a call attention motion moved by Opposition Leader Donkupar Roy with regard to the allocation of Rs 267.4 crore by the Union government to the three Autonomous District Councils. Roy had also wanted to know whether the Special Assistance Scheme has reached the State government and if it has been released to the ADCs.
“The 14th Finance Commission did not allocate any funds to the ADCs and the State government has immediately taken up the matter as the ADCs were benefitted by various recommendations of the preceding Finance Commissions,” the chief minister replied.
“We took up the matter with the Union government who referred the issue to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj which subsequently recommended the Special Assistance Scheme,” he added.
Stating that the Union government has sanctioned Rs 267.4 crore as one time assistance for the three ADCs, the chief minister informed the House that the funds shall be utilized by the State government only for the projects to be proposed by the State government which would be intimated to the NITI Aayog.
It may be reminded that the grant of special assistance which is under one time assistance to areas covered under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution was granted for the State’s annual plan 2015-16.
The chief minister further informed that the Central government had recently indicated to the State that the ADCs would be provided funds on the condition that the district councils should sanction developmental projects.
He also said that the support of the Centre to the district councils is specific to creating assistance in sync with the objective of serving the community.
