SHILLONG, March 8: The Opposition Congress in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council on Tuesday took umbrage over the delay in transfer of central funds by the state government to the Council and urged the Executive Committee to raise the issue directly with the chief minister and officials of the Finance Ministry without further ado.
Raising the issue during Question Hour on the first day of the KHADC budget session, Opposition leader PN Syiem said it was unacceptable that the state government was continuously delaying release of the funds sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance to the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) as per the recommendations by the 15th Finance Commission.
Syiem also recalled that the state government had earlier delayed release of funds under the tied grants which were meant for specific uses like sanitation and water supply.
The Opposition leader also mentioned that the state government had sanctioned the Council’s funds to the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department which was implementing such programmes under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
Syiem said that the state government is adopting the same ploy by delaying release of funds under the health sector grant as provisioned by the 15th Finance Commission.
“This is an attempt to lower the position of the ADCs which are autonomous bodies. We cannot allow this happen,” Syiem said.
He said the state government is liable to pay the interest if it fails to transfer the funds within a period of ten days.
Clarifying on the issue, KHADC Chief Executive Member, Titosstarwell Chyne admitted that the state government always delays transfer of funds to the council by four to five months.
“However, we cannot claim any interest since the state government could easily indicate in the grant transfer certificate (GTC) to the Centre that the funds were released within the stipulated time. Therefore, the official record with the Ministry would show that the funds were released to the ADCs on time,” Chyne said.
Reacting to this, Congress MLA from Mylliem, Ronnie V Lyngdoh said the state government may be trying to mislead the Ministry by providing wrong information and urged the Council to raise the matter directly with Ministry officials.
At this point, Syiem said the ADCs should raise this matter not only with the chief minister but also with Finance officials. “We need to send a strong message to the government since the Council is losing out due to the delay in transfer of funds,” he said.
The KHADC CEM, however, clarified that the Ministry has put in place a very transparent mechanism and there would be online monitoring of how the funds are being utilised.
“We need to upload details of all schemes which we have proposed on the online portal. This way the state government will not be able to manipulate the date when the funds are actually transferred to the Council,” Chyne added.