NEW DELHI, March 10 - The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) today accused the Centre of handing out step motherly treatment to the northeastern States.
Addressing a press conference here today, APCC president and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora alleged that the neglect of the northeastern States by the Centre was evident from the slashing of budgetary allocations to the fund-starved States of the region.
He claimed that Central grants for various schemes of the North Eastern Council (NEC) was slashed to Rs 380 crore from Rs 451.37 crore given in the last financial year. He further alleged that the BTC package this year was nil, while Rs 52 crore was sanctioned last year. Similarly, the Dima Hasao package was cut down to Rs 20 crore from Rs 33 crore earmarked last year.
Borah added that tax collection was reduced in Assam after the implementation of the GST. He said that the Centre had declared that the eight Northeast States will get Rs 37,500 crore in 2017-2018 and Rs 45,000 crore in 2018-2019 as compensation, but only a small portion of that amount was sanctioned.
The State Congress chief also attacked the State Finance Minister for alleged manipulation of the figures in the State Budget. Alleging that the Assam Budget 2017-2018 was a flop, he said that the Assam government has failed to spend 55 per cent of the budgetary allocation of 2017-2018. With 20 days left for the financial year to end, the State government is clueless on what to do.
