Imphal, June 22: Irked at the non-allotment of fund during the fiscal for prevention of soil erosion in catchment areas in hill districts, the Hill Areas Committee (HAC) of the Manipur Legislative Assembly has grilled the Irrigation and Flood Control Department.

Yet, the State Government has issued a direction to make necessary intimation to the HAC before finalising annual plan size.

A reliable source informed The Sangai Express that the HAC even exercised special provision (Article 3716) of the Constitution of India to lodge a complaint against the failure of the IFCD to allot any fund for treatment of catchment areas and soil erosion preventive measures in hill districts.

Besides enquiring about the development projects being taken up and which should be taken up during the current fiscal under Special Plan Assistance, the HAC also insisted that it should be intimated before finalising annual plan size.

According to the special provisions of the Constitution of India and the powers conferred upon the Committee by the President of India, the Committee should be given due opportunity to deliberate on development programmes which may be taken up in both the hills and valley and also on the five year plan size and annual plan size before they are finalised.

Although the IFCD has chalked out eight schemes for the current fiscal related to flood control measures at the total cost of Rs 4000 lakhs, no amount of fund was earmarked for any scheme in hill districts, disclosed the source.

However, necessary funds have been sanctioned against the eight schemes which are listed as State level schemes.

The eight schemes include six flood control schemes in Imphal river, one anti-erosion scheme in Kongba river and another one Thoubal river.

On the other hand, funds sanctioned under SPA for Works Department during the current fiscal include Rs 400 lakhs for building mini-Secretariat as a State level project, Rs 2700 lakhs for development works in hill districts and Rs 700 lakhs for valley districts.

Moreover, Rs 8595 lakhs have been allotted to the Works Department for development/repairing of roads and bridges in hill districts.

For valley districts, Rs 8905 lakhs have been sanctioned under SPA for development/repairing of roads and bridges in valley districts.

For the Department of Education (Schools), a sum of Rs 1800 lakhs including Rs 1000 lakhs have been earmarked for construction of residential schools in each block of hill districts.

For State level projects, Rs 400 lakhs have been sanctioned besides Rs 800 lakhs earmarked for projects in valley districts.

For higher education, the allotment is Rs 200 lakhs for hills districts, Rs 200 lakhs for State level schemes and Rs 1000 lakhs for valley districts.

Under the head of technical education, Rs 300 lakhs have been allotted for modernisation of Government of Polytechnic and Rs 450 lakhs for establishment of an ITI at Jiribam.

Out of Rs 4000 lakhs earmarked for the Home Department under SPA, Rs 3000 lakhs have been allotted for utilisation in hill districts while the remaining Rs 1000 lakhs have been earmarked for valley districts, informed the source.

Against Rs 2550 lakhs earmarked for Power Department, Rs 2050 lakhs have been allotted for State level schemes besides another Rs 500 lakhs for hill districts.

However, there is no specific allotment for valley districts.

For development of urban infrastructure in five hill districts, a total of Rs 1200 lakhs have been allotted to MAHUD Department.

For Sports Department, the allotment stands as Rs 600 lakhs for State level schemes, Rs 1650 lakhs for hill districts and Rs 1000 lakhs for valley districts.

As against Rs 4000 lakhs included in the annual plan for the Health Department under SPA, Rs 3500 lakhs have been allotted to State level schemes and Rs 500 lakhs for schemes in valley districts.

There is no allotment for hill districts.

For the Public Health Engineering Department, the allotment stands as Rs 1200 for hill districts and Rs 600 lakhs for valley districts.

The allotment for the Tribal Welfare Department is Rs 200 lakhs for State level schemes and another Rs 200 lakhs for hill districts.

Against Rs 600 lakhs earmarked for FCS Department, Rs 200 lakhs have been allotted to State level schemes, Rs 400 lakhs to hill districts.

For MOBC, Rs 100 lakhs have been allotted to State level schemes.

The overall picture of the fund allotment for the Rs 55000 lakhs earmarked for different schemes in different Departments under SPA during the current fiscal would stand at 30.76 percent for State level schemes, 41.25 percent for schemes planned in hill districts and 28.01 percent for schemes planned in valley districts.

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