SHILLONG: Union Minister D.V Sadanand Gowda on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over utilising funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).
The Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation said Rs 42.5 crore was sanctioned for Meghalaya between 2014 and 2017 and the State spent Rs 46.9 crore under MPLADS on 1,230 projects in the last three years.
“The expenditure was more because some works were either incomplete or pending,” he said.
Gowda said the ministry is using technology, including web portal and internet, to reduce the time between data collection and release.
Earlier on Tuesday, the minister addressed the media of nine states on the three-year achievements of the Government through a video conference from National Media Centre, New Delhi.
Journalists from Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Shillong, Guwahati, Raipur, Kochi and Chennai took part in the video conference.
The minister presented an exhaustive list of initiatives and achievements in the last three years.
“Adoption of the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics has helped in bringing professional independence, impartiality, accountability and transparency in methods of collection, compilation and dissemination of official statistics, besides fulfilling international commitment,” Gowda said.
Various changes have been made in measuring Gross Domestic Product and related macro-economic aggregates to make them better compliant with the UN System of National Accounts, 2008.
“There have been improvements in the process and collection of data for Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI),” he added.
