Union Cabinet okayed Rs 4,500 cr for development projects: NEC secy

The Union Cabinet has sanctioned Rs 4,500 crore for the ongoing development projects in northeast states for a period of three years, beginning financial year 2017-18, an official of the North Eastern Council (NEC) said today.

The NEC has to ensure "maximum utilisation" of existing funds for completion of the ongoing schemes, its secretary Ram Muivah said at a plenary session here.

"As against a demand for Rs 7,500 crore, the Union Cabinet has approved Rs 4,500 crore for a period of three years. The optimum use of the existing funds would enable the NEC to approach the Ministry of Finance for additional funds during the FY 2018-19," he said.

The two-day NEC plenary, with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh as the chairperson, has been organised here to discuss development work with chief ministers and governors of northeast states, in the presence of Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh.

Muivah, while talking about the status of the NEC-funded schemes, said around 200 development projects, sanctioned in the past one year, have been put on hold for a review by a secretary-level committee.

The NEC-funded projects in the region have to abide by a set of new rules prescribed by the Expenditure Finance Committee before their execution, he said.

The NEC secretary, however, clarified that sectors like power, irrigation, flood control, water supply, school education and healthcare have been left out of the purview of the council.

"The state governments (in the northeast) were requested to keep in abeyance 197 new projects which were sanctioned after March 2017," Muivah said.

A panel, comprising secretaries of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and the NEC, along with chief secretaries of northeast states, would examine the projects, he said, while presenting a report at the plenary.

"All projects funded by the NEC from 60 per cent of its budget will have to be identified by the project implementation committee (PIC), in a departure from the earlier norm when the projects were selected by the NEC, based on the priority lists of the state governments," he said.

The NEC secretary also said that projects that are already lagging by two years from the target date of completion should be completed at the earliest with due formalities.