Speed up fund flow to Assam, Chief Minister urges Jaitley

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday urged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to settle the issue of fund flow to the State from the Centre.

Assam has been facing a major challenge during 2014-15 and 2015-16 over planning and flow of funds, Mr. Gogoi said in a memorandum to Mr. Jaitley.

“This has already resulted in serious implications on various development programmes and is adversely impacting the welfare of poor people of the State,” he said.

As Assam has problems to attract private investment, the State needs more public investment and increased financial support from the Centre to sustain and speed up growth, he stated.

“It may be noted that the funds released to the State are showing a declining trend. We had made budget provision for Rs 21,000 crore for plan expenditure during 2014-15 based on the general trend of annual plan allocations made by the Planning Commission in the previous years,” he said.

The State received an allocation of Rs 18,000 crore, while the actual amount released to Assam in 2014-15 was only Rs 13,632.63 crore, the Chief Minister claimed.

Various development schemes have suffered because of less release of Plan funds from the Centre, he added.

Unlike the erstwhile Planning Commission indicating the quantum of Central support to be available to States for the following year, no communication has been received from the Niti Aayog and the State faced problems in planning exercise, he said. -- PTI