Poor utilisation of 20,000 crore central funds in NE : Jairam Ramesh

Aizawl, Sep 1 (UNI) Union minister of state for Commerce Jairam Ramesh today lamented that the North Eastern states were not utilising the central funds properly and it has now become a cause of concern for the developmental activities of the region.

During a valedictory function of the Public Information campaign under Bharat Nirman Programme, held here at the Information and Public relation auditorium, he said, ''every year the Central government extends about Rs 20,000 crores under various schemes for the 30 million people in the NE. However, these funds are not reaching the specific target group''.

While terming the fund utilisation as the ''greatest tragedy'', he said ''every individual of NE is getting Rs 6,000 per head on an average, but still poverty remains as it is''.

He urged people to utilise the Right To Information (RTI) act as a tool to navigate the funds utilisation.

Mr Ramesh, who was here on a day's tour, pointed out that a section of politicians and group of contractors were the beneficiaries of Central funds.

''Militancy is not the main threat to the region, but corruption has taken a serious toll on the development of the region'', he underlined.

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