SHILLONG, Nov 13: The state BJP has asked the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government to complete the centrally-sponsored projects on time in order to avoid refunding the money to the Centre.
A constituent of the National People’s Party-led alliance government, the BJP is “wary of the slow implementation” of these projects in the state.
“The state government has to complete Jal Jeevan Mission and other centrally-sponsored projects in a time-bound manner so that the state does not end up losing them,” state BJP chief Ernest Mawrie told The Shillong Times on Saturday.
Stating that since the BJP is a part of the ruling dispensation, he said he has already highlighted the project implementation sloth to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma. “Nowadays, if you cannot submit the utilisation certificate, the Centre will not release the money and that is a very important matter,” he added.
Mawrie said the pace of progress of all central projects has been very slow in the state.
Sangma had on Friday exuded confidence that his government will be able to realise the target of providing tap water connections to close to six lakh households by December 2022.
Mawrie lamented the lack of initiative on the part of the state government to attract a slew of projects the NDA government at the Centre offers on national and state highways and even Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
“It is the duty of the government and the local representative of a constituency to write to the authority concerned to make the roads,” he said, referring to the poor condition of roads in the Rajabala constituency that the BJP had contested on October 30.
Mawrie said the state BJP was flooded with complaints about bad roads and non-implementation of the central schemes during the campaign for the by-elections.
He said several schemes “turned into scams” have deprived many poor families in the state. The party, he added, listed the construction of low-cost houses (PMAY), household latrines, ration card, old-age pension, zero balance account, widow scheme, flood relief, housing assistant scheme and SRWP among those that “are in a mess”.