“Central projects progress satisfactory”

Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Oscar Fernandes said that all major projects in the region were being monitored and progress was satisfactory. The Minister said that 116 infrastructure projects worth over Rs 42,000 crore has been completed country this fiscal. Allaying apprehension over cost and time overrun of Central projects in the north-eastern region, the Minister painted a rosy picture claiming that of the Rs 102 crore released to the Region under MPLADS, Rs 100.10 crore was spent leading to completion of 6,831 works. The percentage of utilisation to release, which was Rs 89.65 in May 2004, has improved marginally to 90.86.

The un-spent balance has come down from Rs 80.93 crore last May to Rs 75.74 crore this year, the Minister added. Fernandes said that an amount of Rs 183.52 crore was released to the North Eastern States as grants-in-aid during the last fiscal (2004-2005) to Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur and Tripura for carrying out Sample Survey Work of NSSO. Besides this Rs 36.78 lakh has been released for purchase of computer hardware and software. All deputy commissioners in the North-east have been computers by the Centre to monitor the implementation of the 20-point programme, he announced.

Significantly, the revamp of the Namrup Fertilizer plant is counted among the four projects that have suffered slippage of highest order. A Flash report released by the Ministry on May 31 stated that 58 of the 327 Central sector projects costing over Rs 100 crore have suffered delays in the range of one to 36 months. The Ministry has alerted the concerned departments to take steps and check further delays.

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