SHILLONG: The North Eastern Council (NEC) will take stringent measures in case of delay in projects commissioned under it.
NEC secretary Ram Muivah told media persons on Tuesday that f a project is delayed for more than five years, it will be closed in consultation with respective state governments. Also, the burden of liabilities will be on the state if a project is stopped.
The strong directive comes at a time when several projects in Meghalaya and other northeastern states are being delayed for years.
However, NEC would exempt roads and power projects from the five-year clause as these take time to be completed.
In Meghalaya, several NEC projects are delayed for months. A digital planetarium project for Shillong is delayed for 40 months, horticulture development at Nokrek in East Garo Hills for 63 months and ideal fish seed production in East Khasi Hills for 75 months, among others.
While admitting that the NEC projects in Meghalaya are slow, Muivah said all these projects are of very good quality.
The council has already written to all the states about the delayed projects and asked them to submit utilisation certificates within one year.
If a state fails to do so, the Finance Ministry, which is the chief controller of accounts of NEC, will stop releasing funds for any project which is more than one-and-a-half-year old.
Road projects
NEC also has a three-layer monitoring mechanism for road projects under the North East Road Development Sector Programme.
“We have our consultants, regional level monitors and we have even appointed IIT Guwahati as a third party monitor for road projects,” Muivah said and added that people in Meghalaya are happy with NEC projects.
However, the NEC secretary said a few road projects in Garo and Khasi Hills are challenging.
“We constructed the road and handed it over to the state government but it does not have resources to maintain such long roads and hence maintenance has become a big issue,” he said and lamented that the Finance Commission gives meager amount for maintenance of roads.
NITI Aayog has recently decided to earmark 10 percent of funds for maintenance and NEC is thinking of adopting the same approach.
Muivah said all the states in the region should make united efforts to ensure that substantial amount is given for maintenance of roads in the 15th Finance Commission since state budgets are too less.
“NEC has constructed around 16,000 km of roads and maintenance of the same requires huge money. NEC has come up with a regional plan for the next three years issued coterminous with the 14th Finance Commission and as the Commission gets over on March 30, 2020, similarly, all the existing NEC projects will have to be completed before March 30, 2020,” Muivah explained.
The total fund under the regional plan is around Rs 7,500 crore for the next three years.
According to Muivah, the proposal has been supported by the Ministry of DoNER and the proposal is now with the Ministry of Finance and it can even to go to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, adding that the proposal is likely to be approved in two months’ time.
The plan has been prepared in consultation with all the state governments and various central ministries.
Meanwhile, NEC under its new scheme, the North East Region Road Sector Development scheme, will also take up 50 road projects in the region with a total budget of over Rs 3,500 crore.
The proposal is with the Ministry of Finance and roads which have been included have been identified by the state.
Once the proposal is approved, NEC will take up inter-state roads, besides it will also take up the orphan roads, around 16,000 km, constructed by the council.
