SHILLONG, NOV 8: Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sudarshan Bhagat on Tuesday accused the Mukul Sangma led Congress state government of misleading the people of the state on the allocation of funds by the Centre.
“It is wrong for the chief minister to say that the Centre has reduced the allocation of funds for the state. He (Mukul) is misleading the people,” Bhagat told journalists before leaving the city for New Delhi on Tuesday.
He claimed that sufficient funds have been allocated by the Centre but it is the state which has failed to utilize the funds.
“The state has not been able to utilize even funds of Rs 212 crore which was earmarked under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture,” Bhagat said.
The ruling Congress-led government has been able utilized only 50 percent of the Rs 212 crore sanctioned for Meghalaya for the last four years, he added.
Bhagat further pointed out that the state government has even failed to utilize the artificial insemination scheme of Rs 1.63 crore. He questioned as to how can the chief minister say that Centre did not allocate sufficient funds when the state government did not submit utilization certificate?
Stating that there is no dearth of funds to help the farming community, Bhagat however said, “If the state submits the utilisation certificate the centre will provide more funds.”
On the other hand, the union minister lauded the initiative of the state government with regards to the fishery sector. Assuring that the centre would extend all support to the state, he however urged the government to utilise the central funds in the sector.
Yesterday, Bhagat held a meeting with the officials of Agriculture, Horticulture, AH& Vety, Water Resources departments to review the status of at least 16 schemes implemented in Meghalaya, their financial and fiscal achievements.
He also asked the state government to fast track the implementation of the Central agriculture-related schemes even as Rs 90 crore of the funds still remained underutilized.-By Our Reporter
+ There are no comments
Add yours