Guwahati: Various departments of Assam are yet to submit 57 UCs (utilization certificates) involving Rs 73.50 crore to the NEC (North Eastern Council) till January 31, 2022. The NEC releases funds for the development of the eight northeastern states and some other agencies.
According to Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) statistics, the NEC released Rs 1278.94 crore to Assam in the past 17 years for various developmental projects in the state. The State Government used Rs 1166.42 crore of the NEC fund. While Rs 112.52 crore is still unspent, the State Government is yet to submit 57 UCs involving Rs 73.50 crore.
The eight northeastern states and other agencies have not yet submitted 310 UCs involving Rs 454.38 crore to the NEC.
T&D (Transformation and Development) Department is the nodal agency in Assam that submits UCs. Since T&D is not a project-executing department, it asks other departments that execute projects in the field to submit UCs to it. The T&D Department can send the UCs to the NEC only after getting them from the project implementing departments.
When asked about the pending UCs for the NEC fund, a source in the T&D Department said, "The submission of UCs to the NEC was quite dismal earlier. However, the situation improved to a great extent last year. When we ask various departments implementing NEC projects to submit UCs, they seldom respond. Despite that, we keep putting pressure on the departments to submit UCs.
"We submit the UCs to the NEC. Sometimes, the submitted UCs do not reflect in the DoNER database."
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