Govt urges Centre to continue BADP in Meghalaya

This was informed by Minister in-charge Border Area Development Lahkmen Rymbui while replying to a zero hour notice tabled by Mawsynram legislator Himalaya M Shangpliang in the Assembly on Tuesday.

Rymbui said the department vide letter dated August 2, this year had taken up the matter with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for continuation of BADP for the benefit of the people living in the border.

The MHA through its letter issued on April 6, earlier this year had instructed that the BADP may be continued only up to September 30 and that no Annual Action Plan for 2022-23 should be sent to the ministry.

Through the said letter, the MHA had also instructed that no new works will be approved under BADP and requested the state governments to prioritize the sanctioned works. Only ongoing works are to be continued. Works for projects that has not been started should not be implemented, he said.

He also informed that an email was received from the ministry requesting to update details of funds for ongoing works only in the BADP online management system (OMS). All information as asked/instructed by the ministry has been uploaded and updated in the BADP OMS accordingly (for the ongoing projects of 2020-21).

Rymbui said in view of this, the state government is carrying out implementation of 99 projects approved during 2020-21.

Earlier, Shangpliang had expressed concern over the non-release of funds under the BADP for the past two years. He had submitted schemes amounting to Rs 2.12 crore for 2021-22 and Rs 2.28 crore for 2022-23 for areas under the Mawsynram block and the same was already approved by the State Level Screening Committee.

According to him, the non-release of funds has to a great extent hampered the development in the border area.

“The officers of the department were also directed to have shelved projects for the coming five years in consultation with the MLAs as MLAs have to consult with the local dorbar and other agencies at the ground level. Now we have already provided the list…and when those projects do not come true fingers are pointed to the MLA for being able to ensure fructification of the projects,” he said adding “This creates a lot of inconveniences to us (as MLAs). Therefore, I urge the department to come up with an appropriate reply so that people will be enlightened as to the reasons for not receiving the funds in the last 2 years.”

Rymbu further informed that during the year 2021-22, the MHA, Department of Border Management vide letter dated March 3, 2022 has released an amount of Rs 650.00 lakhs (Rs 585.00 lakhs – central share & Rs 65.00 lakhs – state share) as 1^st tranche.

He said that the department had received the said amount and the same has been utilized for implementation of 99 projects out of 139 number of projects approved for the year 2020-21 and 100% UC has been submitted to the ministry in the month of August, 2022 for the above amount.

He said the remaining fund for completion of ongoing projects as projected by the state amounting to Rs 741.83 lakhs (central share) due from the ministry is yet to be released in view of some technical problems in the PFMS.

“Further 169 projects amounting to Rs 2229.10 lakhs as per ministry’s allocation for the year 2021-22 have been approved by the State Level Screening Committee and the same have been sent to the ministry, however, funds were not received till date,” the minister said.

During 2019-20, an amount of Rs 5066.883 lakhs (Rs 4536.42 lakhs – central share & Rs 530.463 lakhs – state share) has been sanctioned for implementation of BADP in the state and 100% utilization certificate has been submitted to the ministry during December, 2021.

Moreover, 14 projects amounting to Rs 375.9795 lakhs which were approved by the ministry during 2019-20 has been sanctioned during 2021-22 from the state fund and the amount has been fully utilized for the purpose for which it was sanctioned.

During 2020-21, the Ministry of Home Affairs had approved 139 numbers of projects amounting to Rs 15.66 crore; however no funds were released during this financial year.

The matter has been telephonically enquired from the ministry and the reason given is because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rymbui said.