SHILLONG, DEC 9: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday attributed the delay in releasing over Rs 700 crore bills to contractors implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) projects to the Centre’s decision to stop fund releases to all states.
“The funds for JJM have been stopped at the central level for all state governments. So, there are no funds being released to any states as of now. Not just Meghalaya, but the whole country,” Sangma said.
The Chief Minister explained that the JJM was a mission mode programme that was supposed to end in March 2024, and the Union Cabinet had decided to close it. However, the Cabinet later decided to extend the programme till ongoing projects are concluded, subject to an audit of schemes implemented throughout the country.
“The (union) cabinet put a condition that there will be an audit that will be conducted for all the schemes that are implemented throughout the country, and only once the audit is completed for all the schemes, only then the finance ministry, based on that, will release the funds,” Sangma said.
Sangma assured that the issue is not specific to Meghalaya and that the Centre will release funds once the audit is completed.
“Therefore, it is not just in the state of Meghalaya alone, it is the whole country, and we do expect that things will be streamlined, the decisions have been made, the question is just the final implementation is going on, and the audit mandated by the Union Cabinet of the ongoing schemes,” he added.
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