GUWAHATI, May 30 ? The Central Government is far from happy with the level of utilisation of Central fund by North Eastern States particularly Assam and Manipur. Talking to this newspaper on the sideline of the NEDFi seminar on Investment Opportunities in the NE, Dr PD Shenoy, the Secretary of Department of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) said, ?There is lots of scope for NE States particularly Assam and Manipur to improve their performance vis-a-vis utilisation of Central fund.? He said States like Assam and Manipur which are suffering from acute financial crisis, often tended to either divert the Central development fund for payment of salary or delay the release of fund in time.
To prevent diversion of Central fund for non-development purpose, the Centre has asked the State Governments of the NE to provide it with adequate mechanism through which the Central fund could be given directly to development schemes implementing agencies without routing it through the State treasuries. Dr Shenoy stated that there was an urgent need for improvement of the mechanism of calling tenders for development schemes. He said tender notices must be published widely in all local and English newspapers and sufficient time should be given for submission of the bids. The practice of engaging too many contractors for a single project should be avoided as it caused inordinate delay in completion of projects, he said.
Meanwhile, submission of ?detailed project report (DPR)? has been made mandatory for securing fund from Non-lapsable Poll of Central Resources (NLPCR) and guidelines for preparation of quality projects have been circulated among all the NE States. In order to train the NE State officials involved in preparation of projects, the DONER has decided to organise annual residential training for these officers. This year the training will be held in IIM, Kolkata. When drawn to his attention on alleged militants-politics and militants-bureaucrates nexus responsible for siphonning off Central fund meant for development of the region, Dr Shenoy said the Centre would prefer to have more central organisations as implementing agencies for development schemes in the region keep a check on siphonning of funds, if any, to militants coffer. As of now, Central Government does not have any proper assessment of alleged siphonning of fund because of nexus with ultras.
In view of the alarming rate of illegal migration to NE region from across the border from Bangladesh, the Centre is keen to advance the year 2007 deadline for completion of border fencing along the Indo-Bangla border. However, according to Dr Shenoy it will be possible only when agencies like CPWD, BRO, State PWDs co-ordinate better and land acquirement officials of concerned NE States act with urgency to facilitate early completion of the border fencing. He informed that construction of fencing was completed for about 800 kilometres so far.