'Assam faces bleak future due to uncertain Central funding'

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today slammed the Centre while presenting the Budget for 2015-16, saying uncertainties in financial support for many schemes has created a 'bleak future' for the state.
"With uncertainties in the pattern of assistance for many schemes and programmes, states such as Assam, whose revenue base is limited, face a bleak future," Gogoi said in his Budget speech at the Assembly here.
Indications of abrupt changes in the policies and planning by the Central government in a manner that appear to ignore the special requirements of the state have created uncertainty and many apprehensions, he added.

"Of late, the indications are that the principle of assistance to special category states is being diluted. Some schemes have been proposed with higher state share while central share is proposed to be withdrawn altogether for some ongoing important schemes and socially significant programmes.
"Such abrupt change in policy by the Centre would not only leave the ongoing schemes in a state of uncertainty and possibly deprive millions of poor but also disrupt the efforts of special category states like Assam towards growth," Gogoi said.
He pointed out that concern has been raised by members in the House cutting across political affiliations during the current session itself.

Gogoi, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said Assam suffers from the annual cycle of floods and erosion, causing loss of human life, crops and livestock and damages to infrastructure like roads and bridges.
"We lose nearly 8,000 hectares of arable land every year due to erosion. Since independence, the state has lost nearly four lakh hectares. This amounts to 7.4 per cent of its area in Brahmaputra valley alone," he added.