As many as 58,465 infrastructure units/projects that were to be built between 2008 to 2019 have been shelved by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, sources say. States have failed to build any of these units for over a decade and failed to provide deadlines for when they intended to complete the work.
A senior official from the ministry told The Hindu that the ministry has started gathering information from States about the infrastructure projects that they proposed and got sanction for between 2008 to 2019 and found that 58,465 such projects/units were approved.
“State officials had no answers on their failure to start projects for over a decade,” an official said.
All these shelved projects were proposed as part of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), under which community infrastructure and basic amenities are being created in the identified areas.
According to the data provided by the ministry official, a total of ₹4,500 crores is lying in the coffers of states across India. State governments could not provide utilisation certificates for the funding provided by the ministry.
“We have asked the states to provide UCs for their expenditure before we move to the next cycle to release funds. There is already ₹4,500 crore lying unused with states. Many states are unable to show us where they have used previously allocated funds which is why they aren’t using the funds already lying in their bank accounts,” the official said.
The minority ministry is also planning to map capital expenditure by the ministry using Gati Shakti. Under the PM Gati Shakti programme, a portal has been set up to bring 16 Ministries together for integrated planning and implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.
Published - June 13, 2023 05:20 am IST
