Union Minister Ram Kripal Yadav on Tuesday said the Centre is committed for the development of North-east at par with rest of the country.
“No dearth of funds”
“There is no dearth of funds. If the State government wants, we will provide more funds. Water and sanitation is a State subject and the government should prepare feasible projects to get allocation from the Centre...There is need for vigorous pursuance from the State government’s side,” Mr. Yadav told PTI.
Mr. Yadav, who is on a day-long visit to Arunachal Pradesh to take stock of drinking water and sanitation projects, said he had come as per the directive given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who attached top priority for the development of North-east.
“The Prime Minister has directed all the Ministers to spend more time in the region and see that all the central funds are being utilised judiciously,” Mr. Yadav said.
“My Ministry today released an additional Rs.20.9 crore to five N-E States under the National Rural Drinking Water Project. For Arunachal Pradesh Rs.8.71 crore, Meghalaya Rs.4.56 crore, Tripura Rs.4.18 crore, Assam Rs.1.8 crore and Sikkim Rs.1.65 crore was given from the Rs.200 crore unutilised fund of the Ministry under the scheme for last year,” he said.
Expressing concern over slow implementation of projects under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, he said many people are still ignorant about the central scheme under which Rs.12,000 is being given to every household for constructing latrine in 90:10 ratio (90 per cent central grant and ten per cent State’s share). - PTI
