SHILLONG:
Opposition AITC legislator from Mawsynram Himalaya M Shangpliang, on August 23, alleged that the Border Area Development (BAD) department has not sanctioned a single project during the last two years.
He said that there is a centrally-sponsored programme called the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) which is sanctioned and sponsored by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
He told reporters that he had tried his best to find out the reason, but it was of no avail. He said the department informed that it had submitted all the papers required to the Centre though at the state level, the committee has already cleared all the projects that have been submitted by various MLAs and from various constituencies.
The MLA said he had submitted a proposal to the tune of almost Rs 2 crore for 2021-22 and again for another Rs 2 crore for 2022-23.
“Now, we are six months away from the elections, the people of our area who are on the international border are complaining of not receiving any developmental schemes under the BAD. I am totally dismayed by the way that the government is reacting to this whole matter,” he added.
The opposition legislator further alleged that unofficially he got the information that the Centre has not cleared these projects due to non-submission of utilisation certificates by the state government.
He further stated that the people should not suffer due to the negligence of the department or for non-submission of necessary documents and papers to the Centre.
Requesting the personal intervention of the Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, in the matter, Shangpliang said, “Therefore, I urge upon the government and I also request the chief minister to look into this matter personally and see why there is backlog and why is there a delay in the implementation of the BADP.”
“We would not like to see further delays here. This matter is serious. The roads, bridges, school buildings, community halls and many other projects are pending for the past two years,” he said while asserting “Therefore, we would like to see that the state government comes up with an immediate action plan on this matter and sort out this problem so that our people living in the border areas do not suffer any further.”
The MLA said the last funds received was in 2018-2019.
“In 2019-20, they did get a certain amount of projects cleared, then in 2021, out of 13 projects in my area only 6 projects have been cleared and 7 projects are still pending. Now, 2021-22, 22 projects were submitted and out of this all 22 are pending. In 2022-23, 28 projects were submitted and all are still pending. That means my officer who is a BADO is just sitting idle. I called him one day and said what are you doing he said sir, I have no work to do because nothing is in my hand as everything is with the government and everything is with my director,” he stated.