Central team to visit ADCs for direct funding

Aizawl, Mar 13: A ten-member team of Central Financial Experts is scheduled to visit all the three Autonomous District Councils (ADC) of Mizoram this week to inspect the financial management system.

Official sources here today said the team would also explore the possibilities of introduction of direct funding system from the Centre and inspect financial management procedure of the councils since its inception in 1972.

The Centre had been chalking out plans to hand over more powers to the ADCs in North Eastern region to usher in all-round development activities.

Before allocating more powers to the ADCs, DONER Ministry would hold a meeting with all the concerned states to evolve a consensus on the issue, sources said.

The Centres' decision came following demands made by various tribal based parties and ADC heads in the NE region, which mntioned the need to empower the ADCs to involve formulating plans and implementation of various development schemes.

The main grievances with the ADCs included strict control of the state government, less financial powers and a lower status given to the ADC chairman in comparision to other states.

Presently, the Centre had completed drafting the amendment of the sixth schedule and had incorporated comments and suggestions gathered from concerned states and councils.

In the Northeast only Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura have ADCs.

UNI