A parliamentary Committee has indicted the Centre for not releasing funds promised for the North-East as per the Tenth Five Year Plan. The Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which is also attached to the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), said that the Planning Commission’s commitment to sanction Rs 3,500 crore to the North Eastern Council has not been kept.

“The Committee fails to understand why the Planning Commission makes outlay for the plan period and does not adhere to it while allocating it every year,” said the 120th report that was tabled in Parliament.

The total amount released to the eight states so far under the NEC during the current five-year plan is Rs 2,511.5 crore. Sources in the DoNER Ministry said the Planning Commission's reluctance to release the entire sum is due to the slow capacity of utilising of funds.

The Committee was also worried over the current policy of allotment of funds to the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources. It is made up of contributions from the unspent balance every year by different ministries that have to mandatorily spend 10 per cent of their annual budgets in the Northeast.

It fails to understand why certain ministries and departments like science and technology and space have been exempted from compulsory spending.The report also disapproved the Planning Commission’s “nonchalant” attitude of sitting over a proposal to set up two airports in Arunachal Pradesh for the last five years.