Assam government complying with norms for maintaining transparency in utilising central funds: Tarun Gogoi

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that the State Government is complying with all standard norms for maintaining transparency in utilising Central funds.

Refuting the statement of Union Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs, Sarbananda Sonowal that the Assam Government has failed in its responsibility to provide utilisation certificates of funds received from the Centre, Gogoi said that there has been sustained efforts from the vested interests to malign the image of the State Government by spreading false canards.

According to state government as against the allegation that Assam has been paying dearly for non-submission of Utilisations Certificate (UC) to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore Central funds, the startling fact remains that there has always been a mismatch between the UCs submitted by the implementing agencies and Auditor General (AG) due to the dynamic process of continuous flow of funds and ongoing schemes.

The state government argued as against the allegation of non-submission of UCs resulting in cut in Central funds also does not hold good because non-submission of UCs may lead to delayed release of subsequent instalments of the sanctioned ongoing schemes within the same financial year.

State government stated that 12 Central Schemes were struck off by the Central Government not only for Assam but also for all 29 states and 7 UTs in the country. Moreover, in many schemes like Rastriya Krishi Vikash Yojana (RKVY), National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) etc, funding pattern was changed from 90:10 and thus virtually declaring Assam and all other Northeastern States as non-special category states putting these hitherto Special Category States on the same footing with resource rich states.

The State Government reiterated that financial position is stable enough that salaries and pensions of the employees are being paid regularly.