NEW DELHI, March 16 - Notwithstanding clamouring by the Chief Ministers of the north-eastern States for a hike in allocation of funds under the Non-Lapsable Pool of Central Resources, release of funds under the scheme has shown a declining trend.
The amount of funds allocated for the NLCPR in the current fiscal is Rs 635.42 crore, down from last year�s allocation of Rs 704 crore. The year before that the Ministry DoNER had allocated Rs 850 crore for NLCPR projects.
DoNER Minister Dr Jitendra Singh had recently held that the delay in submission of utilisation certificates and detailed project reports were part of the reasons for declining allocations.
In a Lok Sabha reply, Dr Singh furnished figures which indicated a downward trend in utilisation of funds by the States.
Assam, for instance, has utilised Rs 152.33 crore in 2015-2016, marking a marginal increase over last year�s figure of Rs 151.15 crore. The financial year 2013-2014 was the best year for the State when it absorbed Rs 237.14 crore.
In Assam, in the last financial year, 20 projects have been retained, which is much lower than 57 projects retained in 2013-2014. In the current financial year, three projects have been sanctioned, while no new projects were sanctioned during the last financial year.
