Fund use key to bridge NE development deficits

Poor utilisation of funds for projects under the Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) highlighted in Monday’s edition of this newspaper laid bare the paradoxical situation of the region continuing to grapple with the problem of underutilisation even though fund availability is no longer a hurdle. Ironically, two decades have already elapsed since the DoNER Ministry was created in 2004 to ensure full utilisation of 10% gross budgetary support of various central ministries and other fund utilisation in the development-deficit Northeast region. Failure to improve fund utilisation will derail the ambitions of the states in the region to catch up with the advanced states in basic services, if not in all sectors. The report reveals a bleak scenario of utilisation of only 33.55% of total budgetary allocations for the financial year 2023-24 could be utilised. This mismatch between budgetary allocations and project execution on the ground also points towards yawning gaps in the coordination mechanism. Utilisation of funds, including state-specific projects for infrastructure and other development, also lies on the States for timely and judicious utilisation of funds. Unlike the advanced states, the states in the region have limitations in their own resource mobilisation as the partition of India confined these into a landlocked region. Unabated flow of immigrants from erstwhile East Pakistan and subsequently from Bangladesh posed existential threat to the region’s demography, more particularly in Assam and Tripura, and also put tremendous pressure on limited resources, which dragged the region to abysmally low level of development compared to the rest of India. Creation of the DoNER Ministry brought new opportunities for reversing the historic neglect of the region, but lessons learnt from the failure of the North Eastern Council to address the problem of underdevelopment were ignored when the mandates for the ministry were finalised or revised. The NEC was initially created as a regional advisory body in 1971 and subsequently transformed into a statutory regional planning body in 2002 with the mandate to plan, finance, and execute schemes of regional importance. Following the creation of the DoNER ministry, the NEC role as regional planning body was virtually curtailed as it came under the administrative control of the ministry, the latter being given the mandate to plan, execute, and monitor development schemes and projects in the region. The continuation of two regional planning authorities with the same mandate created only confusion, and the submission of schemes and projects for central government funding overshadowed the need for regional planning to identify critical development gaps in the region and address those. The topic “Merging the Ministry of DONER with NEC for better strategic planning and coordination of various projects in the region” chosen for deliberation at the 21st conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, India Region, Zone-III held in Aizawl was reflective of the urgency to end the confusion. The conference unanimously resolved that the DoNER Ministry be merged with the NEC “for better strategic planning and coordination of various projects in the region.” The central government, while considering this resolution, will also be required to reflect on the role that the chief ministers and governors of the region played as NEC council members and what will be their role if it is merged with the DoNER Ministry. The conference also pressed for the creation of a separate Department Related Standing Committee (DRSC) in Parliament exclusively for the DoNER Ministry to oversee the functioning of the ministry and NEC and strengthen legislative oversight on their functioning and in effective implementation of the schemes and policies. The resolution insists that this will ensure greater accountability and strengthen the oversight of the DoNER ministry and its implementing agencies through the Parliament. Currently, the legislative oversight of both DoNER and NEC is under the DRSC on Home Affairs. Parallel to the removal of the confusion over the continuation of both the NEC and DoNER as regional planning bodies for the region, building capacity of the implementing agencies of the States is crucial to ensuring timely utilisation of funds allocated for bridging the developmental gap. Building capacity to prepare a comprehensive and realistic detailed project report, reduced time in environment and forest clearance, and smooth and time-bound land acquisition are critical for expeditious execution, but the region has a long way to go to build its capacity to ensure these. Timely submission of utilisation certificates is crucial for release of subsequent instalments, but this is a rarity in respect of most schemes and programmes which poses a stumbling block in timely completion. As the DoNER Ministry is the only ministry with a mandate for a territorial area, shifting the ministry headquarters to the region from New Delhi needs to be explored for better coordination by the ministry with the States. The pace of development has been accelerated in the region, but bridging development deficiencies will remain a herculean task without full and time-bound utilisation of available funds.