Role reversal: PN Syiem takes on Govt

SHILLONG:  Congress member PN Syiem took the  role of Opposition  on Thursday and  blamed his own Congress-led MUA-II  government for its failure to submit utilization certificates for the schemes sanctioned by the Centre.
Raising a supplementary question on non- submission of utilization certificates, Syiem said in Assembly that the state government has failed  to submit utilization certificates which is a cause of concern.
He asked the Chief Minister Mukul Sangma to provide the total number of Centrally-sponsored schemes for which no utilization certificates was submitted.
In his response, the Chief Minister asserted that the government has not failed in submission of utilization certificates though there are cases of failure of some government departments for certain reasons.
The Chief Minister also informed the House that due to the peculiar situation of change in the guidelines of implementation of centrally sponsored schemes by the Centre, there were problems  related to submission of utilization certificates in the hill states. “Hence, the sweeping remarks that the government has failed cannot be justified”, he said.
Earlier, replying to a question by Paul Lyngdoh (UDP), the Chie Minster said that information is being collected on the total number of centrally sponsored schemes that could not be completed on account of failure to submit the progress report and utilization certificate.
However, the Chief Minister said that till date, no centrally sponsored scheme was left in complete, though there is delay in the submission of utilization certificates for some schemes.
Lyngdoh pointed out that as several projects were not completed in time, this resulted in time and cost overrun and he cited the case of   Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme.
To a question on the implementation of  Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR), the Chief Minister admitted that the state did encounter certain problems as projects were not only sanctioned to government departments, but also to school managing committees delaying the submission of utilization certificates.
The Chief Minister said that the state government has taken a stand that the NLCPR scheme will be implemented only by government departments.