The State Finance Minister Prakash Pant held a review meeting of the projects financed by Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) scheme under National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) at the State secretariat on Tuesday.
In course of the meeting, the secretary finance Amit Negi presented the status of the projects financed under RIDF being executed by the public works department (PWD), irrigation and drinking water departments.
The Minister was apprised that in the current financial year, NABARD has approved a sum of Rs 328.97 crore against the sanctioned limit of Rs 350 crore for various projects in PWD. Regarding the remaining sum of Rs 21.03 crore, the additional chief secretary PWD Om Prakash said that proposal for the same would soon be submitted to the finance department.
The meeting was further informed that proposals worth Rs 134.36 crore sent to NABARD have been pending. The NABARD officials clarified that the delay in clearance had occurred due to the delay in the submission of the detailed project report (DPR) and the related documents by the departments concerned. The Finance Minster is learnt to have told the officials to clear the projects for which DPRs have been submitted.
The secretary, Peyjal, informed the Minister that procedural delays have occurred in sending proposals to the finance department. He added that a proposal for Rs 4.44 crore Tigri drinking water scheme in Udham Singh Nagar district has been sent to the finance department for clearance. The Minister directed the Irrigation and Drinking water departments to ensure that DPRs with TAC and EFC are completed so that the projects are sent to NABARD on time.
The Minister was annoyed over the complaint that the education directorate had refused to seek funds worth Rs 15 crore from NABARD and directed the department to clarify its position.
The NABARD officials requested that allotment and disbursement limit of the agency should be increased for the sanctioning projects in the financial year 2018-19.
The NABARD officials told the minister that the residual sum of Rs 130 crore out of Rs 800 crore allotted to Uttarakhand for new schemes can be diverted to other states by the NABARD headquarters.