Rs 109 clarification

SHILLONG, JUNE 29: Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) will seek clarification from the state government before submitting its proposal for grants of Rs 109 crore for the year 2014-2015.

“We would have to seek clarification from the government before we submit our proposal for grants of Rs 109 crore under the 13^th Finance Commission for the year 2014 – 2015,” Executive Member- (EM) in-charge finance- Antonio N War said while replying to a question raised by UDP MDC Rona Khymdeit during the ongoing council summer session on Monday.

War said the reason for seeking clarification is because the allocation of funds has failed to reflect in the district budget of the state government due to the failure of the 14^th Finance Commission to include the ADCs in its recommendations.

“Therefore, the council needs to be clear on whether it is still eligible to receive the funding or not. We will also have to take up the matter with the centre as well in order to be clear on the funding pattern to the ADCs,” War said.

War said the delay in submitting the proposal for 2014-2015 was because two of the MDCs including HDR Lyngdoh and Latiplang Kharkongor are yet to submit their proposals.

“We will also write to them (MDCs) requesting for early submission of the schemes proposals,” War said. According to him, the MDCs who have submitted have proposed Rs 1  crore each in their proposal for schemes.

Further, War informed from the proposed amount submitted for the year 2012 – 2013, a total of Rs 33.28 crore was approved by the High Level Monitoring Committee (HLMC). He said, “Accordingly, a total of Rs 18.64 crore was released in two installments (Rs 9.32 crore each) on May 7, 2014 and March 20, 2015.” He hoped to get the balance amount of Rs 14.64.

According to War, Rs 38.44 crore was proposed for the year 2013-2014 out of which the HLMC has approved Rs 31.48 crore. He, however, said there is no intimation so far whether KHADC will still get the proposal submitted for the year 2013-2014.– By Our Reporter