Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The central government has approved Rs. 455 crores for the infrastructure development of 65 secondary schools through the construction of new school buildings in Assam under the NESIDS-OTRI (Other Than Road Infrastructure) scheme. The North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) is a central scheme with 100% funding under the Ministry of DoNER.
The decision for infrastructure development of 65 secondary schools in Assam was taken in a recent meeting of the Empowered Inter-Ministerial Committee (EIMC) in respect of NESIDS (OTRI) and Special Development Packages of Autonomous Councils of Assam.
The meeting was chaired by the secretary of DoNER and co-chaired by the chief secretaries of the NE states concerned. The Rs. 455 crore scheme in Assam will be implemented by Assam PWD (Buildings).
The schools where infrastructure development will be done under the scheme are in Baksa, Barpeta, Nalbari, Bongaigaon, Cachar, Chirang, Charaideo, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Dima Hasao, Goalpara, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kamrup (M), Kamrup, Karbi Anglong, Karimganj, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, and Nagaon districts.
In the last EIMC meeting, construction of the Bodoland Movement Memorial Museum at Salbari in Baksa district, with a project cost of Rs 20 crore, also came up for discussion. However, no decision was arrived at in the meeting as ‘comments from the Ministry of Culture awaited’. Representatives said that the file is under examination. The matter is to be placed for consideration at the next EIMC meeting, it was stated.
It was further decided that, from now onwards, all the project proposals, whether they are concept notes or DPRs, are to be uploaded on the Poorvottar Vikash Setu portal, which has already started functioning, by the agencies concerned. Posing the projects and all ancillary processes, starting from the uploading of projects to sanctioning, will be done through this portal only.
Moreover, the status of state-wise pending UCs and the funds lying in CNA accounts were reviewed, and states were advised to take prompt action for the submission of pending UCs and also to draw funds from CNA accounts so as to facilitate the release of additional funds for the projects.
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