Meghalaya Govt fails to utilize scheme for farmers welfare worth Rs 20 crore

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 3, 2020

The Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has pulled the agriculture and horticulture departments over poor fiscal management leading to surrendering of huge amounts of funds meant for the welfare of the farmers in the state.

According to the Committee, the agriculture department has surrendered over Rs 9 crore while the horticulture department could implement only Rs 7.36 crore of Rs 19 crore sanctioned by the 13^th Finance Commission due to delay in submission of Utilization Certificates (UCs).

After chairing a meeting, Chairman of the PAC Charles Pyngrope told reporters that certain observations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on the functioning of the agriculture & horticulture departments was discussed.

He said the CAG was not pleased in the manner which funds were utilized and that the overall functioning of the departments need to be improved in view that Meghalaya is an agrarian state where 80 per cent of the people are farmers.

“We found that the fiscal management of these departments is very poor as at the end of the financial year, they were returning or surrendering funds to the government,” Pyngrope, who is also Nongthymmai legislator, said.

He also informed that in the last two years, there has been a decline in the total agricultural output.

“We have therefore requested the agriculture department to be more vigilant so that farmers are not deprived and to ensure we have steady growth in the agricultural production in the state,” the chairman said.

PAC member and Mawsynram MLA Himalaya Shangpliang informed that there was a lot of unspent money in the agriculture department.

“When enquired, the director of the department mentioned that all this money could not be utilized and the department has surrendered Rs 9 crore to the government,” he said.

According to him, this amount was mainly to provide subsidy for purchase of power tillers, pest control, farmers’ training and others.

“The PAC has viewed this seriously and felt that the department should have exercised its mind before surrendering the money (sanctioned under central and state schemes which was kept unspent from 2001 to 2013-14) to the government,” he said.

Regarding the horticulture department, Shangpliang informed that the department has failed to do justice to the Rs 38 crore approved by the 13^th Finance Commission for Meghalaya in 2007.

“Of this, Rs 19 crore was released to the state but only Rs 7.36 crore was utilized by the horticulture department. However, the central government has stopped releasing the balance amount for the fact that the department has failed to submit the utilization certificates (UCs),” he said adding “There were many lapses in the implementation of the floriculture in Upper Shillong were Rs 80 lakh was released, cashew nut plantation in Garo Hills at Rs 150 lakh…and as a result the state as a whole has been deprived.”

Meanwhile, Umroi legislator George B Lyngdoh informed that the PAC is of the opinion that the state government should review the fiscal management of the two departments for the interest of the state and its farmers.