Slamming the West Bengal government for "tardy" utilisation of funds for projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Union minister of state for urban development Saugata Roy said the state would fail to utilise Central assistance if it did not submit its proposals soon.
The state has a total Central allocation of Rs 3,218 crore. The Centre has already sanctioned 48 projects for West Bengal at a cost of Rs 4,239 crore. Out of this, Central assistance commitment is Rs 1,575 crore which means only half of the Central assistance available has been committed, the minister said.
So far, the state has failed to submit adequate number of approved projects for approval. The utilisation of funds for approved projects has been tardy, he said.
For 35 per cent projects, there has been no utilisation at all. As a result, there has been little progress in some of the big infrastructure projects in Kolkata such as the Vivekananda Road flyover and Park Circus to Parama Island flyover, he said.
The JNNURM is due to end in 2012 and if the state did not submit the projects soon, it will be unable to utilise Central assistance, he said. Roy said the state's performance was far from satisfactory in another scheme under JNNURM -- Basic Services for Urban Poor, mainly for rehabilitation of slums for which 91 projects have been approved by the Centre at a cost of Rs 3,293 crore, with the Central share being Rs 607 crore.
Several projects have been sanctioned for Kolkata Municipal Corporation, he said, but the progress was very bad.
"For instance, the Dhapa water treatment plant and upgradation of sewerage system in Kolkata are behind schedule.
"There are several complaints of substandard work in the KMC projects. We have received a complaint from the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in Kolkata which I am getting inquired into," he said. Roy said that the state government was not mentioning JNNURM in advertisements and publicity materials.
"For instance, last week they inaugurated new houses in Nonadanga. The Centre was paying half of the Rs 41 crore project, but nowhere was JNNURM mentioned. No representative of central government was invited."
He said Gujarat topped the list of states in terms of utilisation of Central funds for implementation of Urban Infrastrucutre and Governance (UIG) scheme under JNNURM followed by Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
"West Bengal will be in second grade in terms of implementation of the JNNURM," he said.
