DoNER minister asks North-East states to expedite fund utilization

Concerned over the funds not getting utilised at a faster pace, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh on Tuesday asked the North Eastern states to expedite the utilisation of funds meant for the development of the region.

Singh chaired a meeting here, attended by senior officials of DoNER Ministry and the North Eastern Council (NEC), called to review the status of Central Budget utilisation so far in the North-East region during the current financial year.

Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's concern for development in the region, Singh said, "PM Modi himself takes a keen interest in development activities in the region, but the delayed response on the part of some of the states deprives the people of getting the optimum benefits envisaged for them." "North-East is very high on the priority of the Prime Minister," he added.

"When the NDA government came to power at the Centre in 2014, there were complaints of gross under-utilisation of Central funds allocated to the North Eastern states. However, in the last four years, Ministry of DoNER has modified a number of procedures, as a result of which, both the funding as well as the accountability has increased manifold," added Singh.

It was emphasised during the meeting that the state governments shall make 100 per cent utilisation of the funds that are available to them so that in the next budget more allocations can be planned. He called upon the state governments to particularly focus on prompt submission of utilisation certificates (UCs) and avoid delays on account of land acquisition and so on.

DoNER Ministry has also decided to bring 'hi-tech' digitalisation programmes for all the eight states in the coming months. In addition, commemorative programmes to observe the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi will also be held in the north-east.