The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (M/oDoNER) on Thursday denied reports in a section of media about tussle between it and North Eastern Council (NEC) and that it has restrained the council from sanctioning new projects.
In a release, the ministry said that the Union Cabinet had fixed the allocation of NEC as Rs.4500 crore for a period of three years starting from April 1, 2017, which included the allocation required for clearance of certain committed liabilities.
It said of the sanctioned amount, NEC has sanctioned new projects worth Rs. 1741.06 crore since April 1, 2017.
"Therefore, the report which appeared in the media is incorrect. During the period, NEC has spent an amount of Rs 2,688.33 crore on various ongoing and newly sanctioned projects. Out of this only an amount of Rs 343.86 crore has been utilized for clearing liabilities of schemes transferred from the ministry to NEC," the release said.
The release said that NEC was a statutory body set up under an Act of Parliament, and enjoys the requisite autonomy in its functioning and freedom to sanction projects in various sectors.
It said that in the preceding two fiscals, NEC has spent an amount of Rs 2140.29 crore on various projects.
More From This Section
For the current year, against an allocation of Rs 1476.10 crore as on September 9 amount of Rs 548.4 crore has been spent on various ongoing and newly sanctioned projects.
"Reallocation of sectors between DoNER and NEC was done with the approval of Cabinet to avoid overlapping of Sectors," it added.