NE district councils to seek fund raise

By Our Reporter  

SHILLONG, FEB 16: The district councils in the North East region on Thursday unanimously decided to seek an enhancement of Rs 2000 crore for various developmental activities in their respective jurisdictions besides demanding a separate ministry for ADCs.

The demand came in the wake of the Centre’s recent decision to reduce the budgetary provision for the special assistant grants for the ADCs to Rs 500 crore for 2017-2018 and Rs 1 crore for 2016-2017.

Earlier the Centre had sanctioned Rs 1000 crore special assistant grant for 2015-2016 for the 10 autonomous district councils (ADCs) of the NE region.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the ADCs under the banner of the Forum of Councils Under Sixth Schedule (FOCUSS) held at the KHADC in the city on Thursday.

The meeting was also attended by the NCP Tura MP Conrad K Sangma, who led the delegation of the GHADC.

The others include representatives of KHADC, JHADC,  North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) , Tripura Tribal Council, Chakma District Council, Mizoram.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, FOCUSS chairman and also KHADC chief Pynshngain N Syiem said, “We have unanimously resolved to urge the Centre to reconsider its decision and enhance the present reduced budget allocation for the 10 ADCs.”

He informed under the present budget allocation, each ADCs will get only 50 percent from the amount sanctioned earlier.

In order to pursue this, he said that two delegations will soon leave for Delhi to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely for their necessary intervention.

“The first delegation will be led by the Forum’s chairman and secretary for meeting the union finance minister while the second delegation will be by the CEMs of all the 10 ADCs for seeking an appointment with the PM,” he said.

He said drafting of the memorandum will be completed by end of this month and will be submitted by the first week of March.

He further informed that the ADCs also resolved to seek the full support with all the chief ministers and members of parliament (MP) of NE region on this regard.

When asked, Syiem, also a Congress suspended member, said that the main reason behind the decision of the Centre is due to non-submission of utilization certificates (UCs) on time.

Another reason cited by him was delay in the release of funds by the state governments to the ADCs for implementing the schemes.

He informed that the KHADC and JHADC are yet to get the funds sanctioned by the Centre till today despite scheme and proposals submitted.

Due to this, Syiem said that the Forum has decided to reflect in its proposed memorandum to urge the finance ministry to issue necessary guidelines for releasing funds by the state governments within specific timeframe.

“The 13th Finance Commission has clear guidelines but there are no clear guidelines for the state governments,” he said.

He said that the Forum will also demand to the Centre to consider setting up of a separate ministry for the tribal district councils in the NE.

“We will also demand with the centre to create a separate budget head for the ADCs,” he added. Meanwhile, the Forum has also resolved to draft it’s constitution besides including the ADCs falling under the Seventh Schedule.

The task for drafting the constitution of the FOCUSS has been entrusted to the forum secretary who is also NCHAC EM Kulendra Daulagupu.