The State Government on Monday urged the Centre to release Rs90 crore to meet the expenses in the ongoing implementation of the extended National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) in the State.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the State is implementing the World Bank-supported five-year NCRMP since 2010-11, which will end in October this year. But the scheme’s implementation is now held up due to delay in release of Central share. Against the current year’s provision of Rs255 crore as Central share, the State has received about Rs155 crore. Though the State had received about Rs40 crore by December 2014, liabilities in terms of claims of executants have exceeded this amount.
The CM pointed out that considering the success of the NCRMP (first phase), the Centre had supported the proposal of the State amounting to Rs440 crore under NCRMP-Additional towards construction of 162 cyclone shelters and 100 approach roads with identical terms and conditions.
As the approved programme provided for retroactive funding to the tune of Rs120 crore, the State Government has gone ahead with the implementation. However, the State is yet to receive the Central share of about Rs90 crore while it has already spent Rs65.45 crore till the end of December, 2014, he noted.