GUWAHATI, May 5 � Though the Assam Government has decided to seek Rs 16,000 crore as the annual plan allocation for the current financial year, it is unlikely that the Planning Commission will agree to such a major hike as like in the previous years, Assam failed to spend the allocation in the last financial year.
Highly placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that the plan size of Assam would be finalized on May 7 at a meeting between Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi. Gogoi is scheduled to leave for New Delhi tomorrow.
Sources said that after considering the demands of various departments, the State Government decided to seek Rs 16,000 crore as its annual plan allocation, but such a major hike was never given in the past. The states of the region normally get annual hike of around 10 per cent and a similar hike is expected this year too.
Official sources said that the Plan allocation of the state in the last financial year was Rs 10,500 crore and like in the previous years, the State Government failed to utilize the funds. According to an estimate, the State Government could only utilize only around 75 per cent of the fund. The reasons given for the failure to implement the funds fully include waves of floods, which affected the functioning of the works departments and the ethnic clashes in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Council area, which kept the administration busy for months. Sources admitted that the money which could not be spent during the year lapsed as the same is not carried over to the next financial year.
Same was the case in the year 2011-12 when the Plan allocation for Assam was Rs 9000 crore and the Government failed to utilize more than Rs 2000 crore. The main reason given for the failure to utilize the funds that year was the Assembly elections. Moreover, sources admitted that most of the departments of the State Government lack the infrastructure to implement major projects in time.
It may be mentioned here that the Plan sizes of the states are finalized considering various aspects like requirement, population pattern etc., and a number of states of the country could manage much larger Plan allocation despite having much less population than Assam because of their ability to contribute with their own resources.
