Tura: After Meghalaya was ranked as one of the poorest states in the country by Niti Ayog, BJP leader and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak has blamed it on corruption and other irregularities committed by those in authority for the poor ranking.
The Tura MDC alleged that corruption was rampant both in the state and the District Council that people belonging to certain political parties got rich while the others stayed poor.
“Niti Ayog has pointed out correctly that Meghalaya is one of the poorest states in India which is actually true. The State and the Autonomous District Councils were receiving huge amounts from Niti Aayog for development purpose but the utilization certificates (UCs), which were to be submitted after the completion of the work, were not submitted in many cases, violating the guidelines laid down by Niti Aayog during the release of the funds,” he said.
“In some cases, the projects are ghost projects while in other cases there are duplications of projects. This could be one of the reasons why the UCs could not be submitted in time and thus the works could not be shown as completed in the state. In Meghalaya, only individuals belonging to a certain political party enjoy the privilege of being rich, while the rest are poor, which is sad but true,” Bernard said.
According to Bernard, being named as the poorest state by Niti Ayog was unfortunate but it also gives a glimpse of where the state stands in the country’s chart despite tremendous funds being pumped to the state for all round development.
Bernard further alleged that the reason why the Utilisation Certificate (UCs) could not be submitted till today by the State and the ADCs was because works were not completed in many places.
He added that the Centre made efforts to make Meghalaya self-sufficient, self-reliant by uplifting the poor through various schemes in the state but strangely the targeted groups failed to get the benefit.
“The amount of money sent through the state and the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) for implementation is below expectation, which Niti Ayog has taken serious note of in the past and now. The state is not only to be blamed for this status, even the Autonomous District Councils are equally responsible for getting the state named as one of the poorest,” he claimed.
According to the Tura MDC, Niti Ayog sanctioned a considerable amount through the ADCs for the rural areas with very little visibility to the public. However, these amounts unfortunately were not distributed equally for the areas within constituencies; instead often the funds were taken away by the members of the ruling parties while merely 10% was allotted to the areas of the opposition members.
“The members who got huge amounts rarely completed the work allotted to their areas and most of the sanctioned works remain incomplete even till today,” he alleged.
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He said that there are also duplications of the projects and money was drawn without proper verification against which proper investigation and action need to be taken. Moreover, the funds were not utilized for the people oriented projects which is unfortunate as the amounts sanctioned for the upliftment of the poor remained unaccounted for.
Bernard added that Meghalaya being named the poorest was also due to lack of awareness among the poor. According to him, no initiative was taken by the authorities concerned to sensitize the poor on the vision and the initiative of the central government under the leadership of our PM Narendra Modi to uplift the poor and to bring about all-round development of the state.
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