AGARTALA: With barely ten months left for expiry of XIII Finance Commission’s tenure, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Thursday asked top officials of the state administration to expedite pending projects to get the next instalment released at the earliest.
In the meeting, it was revealed that substantial amount of FC sanctioned outlay has not been released to the state resulting in tardy pace of implementation of various projects.
As per the XIII FC award, the state is supposed to receive Rs. 1262.99 crore under plan outlay while it has got only Rs. 721.30 crore so far. Likewise, the state is supposed to get Rs. 369.62 crore for implementing various development projects under Rural Development but the Centre has released only Rs. 176.59 crore.
The state was awarded Rs. 96.03 crore for State Disaster Response Fund during the period of XIII FC but Rs. 74.91 crore has been released to the state so far. While Rs. 23 crore was awarded for raising educational infrastructure to the state, the Centre has released only Rs. 9 crore hindering the normal pace of the works.
For road connectivity development, the FC had awarded Rs. 122.40 crore to the backward state but the state has received only Rs. 49 crore. The FC had finalized Rs. 95.52 crore for implementation of different forest related projects but the department has so far got only Rs. 59.70 crore.
Tardy pace of works was the main reason behind the release of less outlay against the approved outlay by the XIII FC. Considering all aspects, the Chief Minister asked the officials to take all possible measures to ensure speedy completion of pending projects.
In the meeting, he asked the secretary level officers to keep close eye on the implementation of projects approved under the XIII FC and keep Chief Secretary SK Panda informed about the real-time progress.
Sarkar also asked the officers to submit utilization certificate of any particular work before the concerned Ministry to get release of next installment.
According to the experts, the state will be deprived by the XIV FC if the state government fails to utilize the fund available under XIII FC. Finance Minister Bhanu Lal Saha, Chief Secretary, Addl Chief Secretary JK Sinha, DGP C. Balasubramanian and Secretary Ashutosh Jindal were present in the meeting.
