New Delhi, Aug 4: The Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR), introduced by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA Government for the Northeastern states has been discontinued since 2017 and has been replaced with a new scheme called North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), the Centre said on Wednesday.
In reply to a question of Lok Sabha MP Vincent H Pala, DoNER Minister GK Reddy said that the NLCPR has been replaced with NESIDS since December 2017.
Pala wanted to know if the NLCPR scheme is still valid.
During the Vajpayee rule, the Union ministries were mandated to spend 10% of their budget allocations for development of the Northeastern region. However, in case the ministries failed to spend the said amount for development purposes, those unspent funds were diverted to the NLCPR.
So far, 22 projects costing Rs 885.44 crore have been selected for funding under the NESIDS for different states of the region, official sources said.
The NLCPR is continuing in a very limited way to meet the earlier committed projects, the Minister replied.
He also gave details of funds allotted to each NE state under various heads. The Vajpayee Government which created the Ministry of DoNER exclusively for the first time for NE created this fund since no ministry can divert the money on grounds of unspent account.
