Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi at the review meeting in Patna on Sunday. Telegraph picture

Patna, Feb. 26: Deputy chief minister and district in-charge Sushil Kumar Modi today asked all the people’s representatives to submit, within three days, suggestions on how to utilise the chief minister area development scheme funds for Patna.

The district has failed to utilise even a single rupee of the Rs 18.72 crore provided to it as part of the scheme.

Modi, during a review meeting of the scheme at Patna collectorate, said: “As the funds allotted under the chief minister area development scheme have not been utilised in the current fiscal , I want the people’s representatives of Patna to submit suggestions on how we can use the money within three days.”

District magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh, road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav, food and consumer protection minister Shyam Rajak and other MLAs and MLCs were present at the meeting.

A large number of development projects are supposed to be funded by the scheme that was introduced last year. It replaced of the MLA/MLC local area development fund under which legislators used to get Rs 1 crore every year for development of their respective constituencies.

Sources said the main reason for the non-utilisation of the fund is that the districts have not yet started to issue tenders for executing projects under scheme. Also, the government is yet to fill all the posts of engineers and officials of the Local Area Engineering Organisation that has been set up to execute the development projects.

Modi, however, cited other reasons for the non-utilisa- tion of funds. “It is a new scheme and every new scheme takes time before execution,” he said

The deputy chief minister also said: “A whole new structure has been set up for the effective and efficient implementation of projects under the scheme. Such things take time.”

Asked if the funds allotted under the scheme would lapse if not utilised in the current fiscal, Modi said: “The funds of the scheme will not lapse. We will utilise it to construct a godown to store paddy crops as well as community halls to host weddings.”

Modi also said: “By June this year, we will utilise 80 per cent of the fund. For the next fiscal (2012-13), Rs 325 lakh has been allotted for the development of the districts.”