Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has urged upon the North Eastern States to submit Utilisation Certificates (UCs) of different ongoing projects on time so that the further grant of funds for these projects can be released without delay and the completion of projects takes place within the fixed time line.
Presiding over a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Members of Parliament from Northeast, who included Union MoS Home Kiren Rijiju and former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A.Sangma, Dr Jitendra Singh, in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee, called upon the MPs to impress upon their respective State Governments to cooperate with the DoNER Ministry for expediting the various development projects. On their part, he disclosed that the Ministry of DoNER had taken certain new measures like engaging an agency “WAPCOS” for clearance of technical projects and setting up of an e-Portal for Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) for receiving DPRs online, sending automatic reminders and also offering access to inputs and suggestions from the citizens.
In the same way, he said, the State Governments could also evolve a certain mechanism by way of which, the submissions of DPRs, furnishing of UCs and release of 10 per cent State share of funds could be ensured on time.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the development of Northeast is very high on the agenda of the Central Government and he personally keeps in touch with all the Chief Ministers and the Governors in order to ensure that there are no communication gaps. At the same time he informed that the DoNER Ministry and NEC have undergone certain changes in hierarchy in the recent months with a new Secretary DoNER and a new Secretary NEC having taken charge.
In order to overcome bottlenecks in the procedures, Dr Jitendra Singh said, a number of modifications have been made to minimize delays because, once delay occurs, it could only lead to the possibility of lapse of funds but the projects also tend to get stalled with subsequent further escalation in the total budget.
At the meeting, Secretary DoNER Naveen Verma raised statistical figures reflecting the number of ongoing projects of each of the eight States, the amount of fund released for each project and the UCs received or not received.
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