Imphal, July 16: Ahead of the proposed visit of an official team from the Union Planning Commission to inspect the developmental works being taken up under its Plan amount by the State Government from August 4 to 7, a meeting chaired by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh has today reviewed the utilisation of the fund under the Special Plan Assistance for the fiscal year 2007-08 .

During the course of the review meeting, it came to light that most of the fund had not been utilised though the same had been deposited in the account of the Government and the work agencies.

Besides Ministers, today's meeting was attended by the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Planning), Commissioners, Secretaries and heads of various departments.

Out of the total Pan amount of Rs 1420.44 crores including Rs 500 crores under SPA for the fiscal year 2007-08, it has been detected that around Rs 282.73 crores had been deposited in the Government account.

However, 21 percent of the said amount is still lying unused.

The remaining Plan amount of the fiscal year which had not been deposited in the Government account is claimed to have been deposited in the account of the work agencies concerned.

The amount deposited in the Government account relates to LDA, Works, Home, Higher Education, Transports and Art and Culture Departments.

Taking serious note of the amount lying unused in the Government account, the Chief Minister has issued instructions to all the officials concerned for withdrawing the amount and ensuring its proper utilisation in view of the fact that non-submission of the physical and financial reports of the projects amounting upto Rs 154 crores may entail the Planning Commission to stop releasing further fund.

On the other hand, even if most of the Departments have submitted their detailed project reports (DPRs) to the Planning Commission in connection with utilisation of the Plan amount of the current fiscal year 2008-09, some Departments like Health, School Education and Sports are yet to submit their respective DPRs.

The total Plan amount for the fiscal year 2008-09 is Rs 1660 crores which is inclusive of Rs 550 crores under SPA.

In this regard, the Chief Minister also instructed the authorities concerned for doing the needful.

Directing these departments to submit their DPRs within two months time, the Chief Minister made it clear that out of the total sanctioned amount of Rs 550 crores under SPA, a sum of Rs 35 crores has been earmarked for Health Department in connection with development of JN Institute of Medical Science, Rs 5 crores for the School Education in connection with providing facilities for science and mathematics teachers in the hills and Rs 1 crores for Sports Department for infrastructural development.

Today's meeting also discussed identification of the work sites to be visited by the official team of the Planning Commission.

The official team of the Union Planning Commission to be led by its Senior Advisor Jayenti Chandra is expected to visit work sites to personally monitor the progress of the works being taken up.

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