Flood management: No fund for Nagaland

Dimapur, July 26 (EMN): The state of Nagaland has not received any funds from the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation for the flood management projects (FMP) for the financial year 2017-18. According to a PIB press release on Thursday, the Union minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Arjun Ram Meghwal made the announcement in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on July 26. In the minister’s report, it showed that the ministry had released INR 23.13 cr. for the state of Nagaland for 2016-17 and INR 2.51 cr. in 2015-16 exclusively for the FMP. However, unlike the past two financial years, the ministry did not release any funds to the state for 2017-18. The fund that was released for neighbouring Assam was INR 245.49 cr. for 2017-18, considering the fact that the region is a flood-prone zone. Assam is also the highest recipient of central financial assistance among 24 states. The amount of fund that was released for other Northeast states: Arunachal Pradesh, INR 21.18 cr. (2017-18 FY); and Mizoram, INR 0.48 cr. (2017-18 FY). Manipur, Sikkim, and Tripura joins the line with Nagaland as zero-fund recipients during 2017-18 FY. The ministry had FMP with an outlay of INR 8,000 cr. in the XI Plan, which was continued with an outlay of INR 10,000 cr. during the XII Plan. By far, central assistance amounting to INR 3566.00 cr. was released during XI Plan and INR 1307.07 cr. during XII Plan. Further a central assistance of INR 562.67 cr. was also released during the year 2017-18. Thus, since the start of XI Plan, the total central assistance released to states for the FMP up to March 31 2018 is INR 5435.74 cr., the press release stated.