SHILLONG, NOV 7: Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sudarshan Bhagat on Monday asked the Meghalaya government to fast track the implementation of the central schemes related to agriculture as over Rs 90 crore is still underutilized.
The direction came during a meeting held with the officials of Agriculture, Horticulture, AH& Vety, Water Resources in the city to review the status of at least 16 schemes implemented in Meghalaya, their financial and fiscal achievements.
The schemes were sanctioned under 90:10 funding pattern where the centre is providing funds of 90 percent and 10 percent is the state share.
Addressing newsmen after meeting, Director of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India Vineet Kumar Verma said, “The union minister of state has directed the state to fast track the implementation of the various central schemes. They have to strengthen their machineries and quickly incurred their expenditure and come back to us.”
“Simply incurring the money is not enough but the state government needs to submit utilization certificates first or else we will not be able to release the money,” he said while informing that for the last four years almost Rs 90 crore is underutilized by the state.
He said if the state government delays the implementation the amount of funding will be reduced in the next year’s budget. Urging the state to make efforts to utilize the central funds, Verma however said, “If the funding is reduced, the state will be at a loss.”
Verma, however, remarked that there are some schemes where the state has also done a tremendous job.
Earlier during an interaction with the union minister of state, officials of the agriculture department expressed concern over the agriculture department getting very less funds from the centre.
It was also informed that under RKYV scheme out of Rs 244 crore sanctioned by the centre only Rs 34 crore was utilized so far.-By Our Reporter
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