MLAs blame it on bureaucratic red tape
Unused MLALAD funds
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Oct 15: Most of the MLAs of the State, cutting across party lines,
have today blamed it on official bottlenecks and bureaucratic red tape for the
non-utilization of MLA Local Area Development funds. The State Government is
contemplating on taking back the unused MLALAD funds to the State exchequer as
a huge amount of money released by the Government for the development of its
126 LACs remained unused.
AGP-P president and former State Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, when
contacted by The Sentinel today, said the Government releases the funds very
late leading to non-utilization a huge chunk of them. An MLA naturally wants
to develop his or her constituency, but it is the system that puts hurdles, he
said.
Mahanta is against making the MLALAD funds lapsable as he thinks that such a
step will hamper development at the grassroots level. He said at the time of
release of the second instalments of MLALAD funds the bureaucratic red tape is
always more.
Such an allegation was also levelled by AUDF general secretary and party MLA
Hafiz Basir Ahmed Qasimi. He has demanded for an inquiry into the attitude of
the district administration concerned, which, he said, is the execution
authority of schemes submitted by an MLA. I have submitted all the schemes of
my constituency within a month of the allotment of funds made by the
Government, but still little has been done towards the implementation of the
schemes, he said.
CPI(M) State unit general secretary and party MLA Uddhab Barman also blamed it
on the incompetency of the district authorities in implementing the schemes
submitted by the MLAs. In many cases, the district authorities express their
inability in timely monitoring of schemes due to shortage of manpower.
Corruption at the district level cannot be ruled out, he added. The Government
should rectify the system before going for any other measures, he suggested.
AGP MLA Robin Banikya thinks that technical hurdles lead to the delay in
implementation of the schemes. The MLALAD funds are not that huge, but the
formalities involved are very complicated, he said. He also criticized the
Government for the delay in release of the funds. However, BJP Legislative
Party leader Mission Ranjan Das thinks that the MLAs should be blamed for
non-utilization of funds. He said it is unfortunate that several MLAs are yet
to use a single paisa of the funds released for the development of their
constituencies. Besides, the beneficiaries of the funds have to be educated so
as to ensure good results, he added.
(The Sentinel,16.10.2007)
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