From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI, March 5: A Parliamentary Standing Committee has criticised the Centre for non-utilisation of 36 per cent of the 2025-26 budget of Rs 5,915 crore of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).
Even in the 2024-25 budget, a higher 41 per cent allocation remained unutilised, the committee said.
An analysis showed that only during the initial years since the Ministry’s creation, funds were utilised a 100 per cent.
During a recent meeting of the parliamentary committee, several lawmakers questioned Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan over the unutilised funds. A Standing Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs looks after the DoNER Ministry. The issue has been referred to its Chairman Radha Mohan Das Agarwal (a BJP Rajya Sabha member).
Many Opposition MPs reportedly asked the Home Secretary why funds were not spent in the troubled state of Manipur. They also alleged that the government was ‘ignoring’ the state.
The Union Budget allocation of Rs 5,915 crore to the Ministry during 2025-26 was a 47 per cent hike over the 2024-25 allocation of Rs 4,006 crore. The budget then focused on infrastructure development, enhancing regional connectivity via UDAN, and significantly boosting the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for Northeast Region (PM-DevINE).
The Budget 2026-27 allocated Rs 6,812.30 crore to the Ministry. The increased amount highlights Centre’s continued focus on regional infrastructure, social development, and connectivity projects.
Expressing serious concern on the issue, the members of the committee noted that such persistent underspending undermined the developmental objectives in one of India’s strategically sensitive and economically vulnerable regions. They highlighted that the Centre’s flagship PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, which was launched in February 2024 to incentivise rooftop solar installations, remained unevenly implemented in the Northeast.
Of the three lakh households to be covered across eight states of the Northeast under the scheme, only one-fourth of the households have been covered so far. Several members of the committee, including BJP MPs, have reportedly proposed to share their concerns in writing to the Ministry of Home Affairs directly.
In a recent letter to Das, Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien flagged “persistent underutilisation” of funds allocated to the DoNER Ministry, citing schemes failing to reach the targeted number of beneficiaries besides vacancies in the department.
An analysis of the Union Budgets shows that since the DoNER ministry was created — initially as a department in 2001 before it was made a full-fledged ministry in 2004 — it reached or exceeded a 100 per cent utilisation of allocated funds only in the first three years.
Between 2004-05 and 2024-25 (the latest year for which actual outlays, rather than Budget or Revised Estimates, are available), the Ministry has spent 74.7 per cent of its Budget Estimate allocation and 82.66 per cent of the Revised Estimates.
Critics noted that while absolute numbers rose, the region’s share of the total Union Budget remained virtually static, leading to claims of “symbolic centrality and fiscal marginality.”
Opposition parties and some analysts highlighted that despite the high total outlay, there were no major new project announcements specifically for the region. Concerns also remain regarding the “shortfall in actual expenditure” in the region.
