A parliamentary committee on home affairs has expressed its displeasure on the fund utilisation capacity of the Bodoland Territorial Council.

The committee said the council is not able to absorb the allocated fund for development activities. No funds have been utilised for 2018-19 and 2019-20, according to a report laid in the current session of Parliament.

The fund utilisation capacity constraint becomes important with the Centre recently announcing a special development package of Rs 1,500 crore for the next three years for areas under the BTC.

The agreement said, “The Assam government may earmark a sum of Rs 250 crore per annum for a period of three years for the development of the area under BTC. The Centre may contribute an additional amount of Rs 250 crore per annum for the same period. As per the memorandum of settlement (MoS) signed in 2003, the government of India had agreed to provide a special economic package over and above the plan fund to Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) through the government of Assam to undertake special projects for socio-economic infrastructure development that will be proposed by the council. The total value of the package is Rs 750 crore. Altogether 63 projects worth Rs 741.93 crore have been sanctioned so far. In 2017-18, BTC utilised 46.94 per cent of the funds, while they could not utilise anything in 18-19 and 19-20.”

On problems being faced by the council in undertaking development activities in the BTC area and steps taken to combat the same, the committee was told that there were some cases of delay in transfer of funds from the state government in the past, which has since been addressed.

Responding to the committee’s query on the steps that can be taken for making the council a harbinger of socio-economic development, the ministry said the state government may take up other schemes in the area for its socio-economic development.

Limited working season, slow pace of work due to hostile terrain; and frequent bandhs called by different organisations are the main reasons in undertaking development activities.

The committee has recommended that the funds should be utilised optimally, efficiently and expeditiously too by BTC as the same would lead to socio-economic infrastructure development like road and bridges, power, agriculture, art and culture.

The committee, therefore, strongly recommends that DoNER ministry must take a lead in coordinating with the Assam government and BTC for formulating infrastructure projects so that all proposals of BTC are submitted in time for final approval.

It has further recommended that the ministry must have appropriate monitoring mechanism in place to ensure speedy execution of projects undertaken including release of funds and furnishing of utilisation capacity so that projects are completed without any time and cost overrun.