DoNER Ministry proposes revised guidelines for Northeast projects

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh announced in Guwahati today that a new revised guidelines will be prepared by the Ministry of DoNER with the objective of expediting development projects in Northeast by simplifying procedures to avoid delay and at the same time bring in more transparency.

At a joint meeting of Ministry of DoNER and Government of Assam, Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that judicious time-bound planning and monitoring of projects using Space technology, satellite imaging and IT tools like Portal and App will be put to optimum use to avoid undue delays. At the same time, he said, use of Space technology can bring in more transparency and authenticity in Utilisation Certificates (UCs) submitted for various projects.

Emphasising on the completion of the ongoing projects without resorting to parking of funds, Dr Jitendra Singh made it clear, no fresh sanction for new projects will normally be issued if unspent balance of the State is more than 1.5 times of the normative allocation of the State on account or Utilisation Certificates (UCs) due is more than 5 per cent of the total release. The introduction of online submission of documents should leave no excuse for delay in file work, he added.

Dr Jitendra Singh also advised the State Governments to prepare Department Project Reports (DPRs) and get them vetted techno-economically and recommended from SLEC in order to avoid delay.

Lauding the innovative and fast track approach adopted by the Ministry of DoNER, Dr Jitendra Singh said that there has been a substantial jump in the release of funds and submission of UCs in the last two and a half years in which a total of Rs.252.54 crores has been released. Citing the figures, he said, in 2014-15, when the present Government took over, a total of Rs. 60.46 crores was released for NLCPR projects in whole of the year while in the current financial year of 2016-17, in the first 6 months itself, Rs. 92.67 crore has already been released.

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