SHILLONG, NOV 8: Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma on Tuesday said unless the Centre continues with the special assistance for the NE states including Meghalaya, the momentum of growth of the region will be dislocated.
“Unless Government of India (GOI) has an understanding and continue with special assistance which successive governments in the past have maintained the momentum of growth of the region will be dislocated,” Sangma told journalists.
He was reacting to reports that quoted the Union Minister of State for Agriculture S Bhagat during his visit to the state saying that the state has failed to utilize funds of Rs 90 crore for the past four years.
Bhagat had also accused the chief minister of misleading the people of the state with regards to fund allocation by the Centre.
“If somebody is saying that the chief minister is said GOI is withholding funds in the NE and if that person is stating that what the CM is saying is wrong then he does not know the statistics,” Sangma said.
Expressing concerned over the reduction of funds by the centre for the state, the CM said, “Instead of Rs 262 crore which was given by the Centre till October, the state has received only Rs 145.61 crore resulting to a shortfall of Rs 116.45 crore for November.”
Sangma also lamented the present NDA led Centre government decision to suspend the North East Investment Promotion Policy, 2007.
“When investment started showing some sporadic positive stories suddenly this scheme has been suspended by the NDA government and there is complete confusion in as far as investment in NE is concerned,” he said.
He informed that successive governments in the past have been creating conducive environment for investment in the name of North East Investment Promotion Policy 2007.
“When GOI, on one hand, is saying Made in India Campaign but what will happen to NE in absence of those kind of supportive policy to attract investment and how NE states can actually expect investors to look at the region as a possible investment destination,” he queried.
He added, “I am talking to my counterpart chief ministers to take up this issue collectively and ensure that the authorities in Delhi who are responsible for reversing this decision understand the importance of decisions taken by earlier governments and restore this decision.”
Meanwhile, the chief minister has also refuted the allegation that the state was able to utilize only Rs 34 crore out of Rs 244 crore sanctioned under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).
“This is not correct,” he said adding that the funds released by the GOI from 2007 till 2016 have been fully utilized by the state besides the amount release recently for 2016-2017 is under process.
He said the total funds received over the years after the RKVY scheme is implemented in the state was only Rs 244.558 crore. This whole funding pattern is again determine by how much the state is investing in agriculture and allied sectors, he said.
He further stated that since GOI has decided to modify the funding pattern to 50:50, the state governments of the NE took it up aggressively and prevail upon GOI that model is not workable.
“If projects have to be implemented in the NE the funding pattern has to be either 100 percent for all those under 100 per cent and 90:10 for all those under 90:10,” he said.
Stating that nothing has changed, Sangma said what has change in respect of transfer of resources to the state all the NE states is that the special assistance which has been withdrawn by union government.
“This is how the NE state have been treated by the GOI and please don’t treat NE as equal with resource rich states…,” he said while pointing out that Maharashtra is also getting 42 per cent like NE states.-By Our Reporter
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