Patna, June 1: Chief minister Nitish Kumar has sent an SOS to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, seeking release of Rs 6,395-crore "special assistance" funds under the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) this financial year.
In a letter written to Jaitley on May 31, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, Nitish has also pointed out that "any delay in release (of the funds) will, apart from being detrimental to the development needs of Bihar, also lead to cost and time overrun" of the projects.
Of the amount being awaited, Rs 4,999 crore is for new projects, Rs 494 crore is for completion of old ones and the remaining Rs 902 crore is the balance amount (Union government share) pending with Niti Aayog for sanctioning projects, which include cost overruns in energy projects and a proposal for construction of a Rs 391-crore underpass between Lalit Bhavan and Vidyut Bhavan on Bailey Road.
Nitish, in the letter, has stressed that the duration of the 12th plan, which started in 2012-13, is up to 2016-17, and the state government "expects that the pending amount will be released in the current financial year".
The funds are part of total Rs 12,000 crore sanctioned amount for "special plan" or BRGF for Bihar under the 12th five-year plan of which Rs 10,500 crore and Rs 1,500 crore were earmarked for expenditure on new, as well as, the ongoing projects, respectively.
BRGF was designed and started by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 to address regional imbalances in development and covered 250 districts in 27 states.
The new projects, already approved by Planning Commission, now known as Niti Aayog, under the 12th plan include eight projects worth Rs 8,309 crore in the energy sector and one project in the road sector worth Rs 1,289 crore.
However, the Centre released Rs 5,605 crore between 2012-13 and 2015-16 to the state of which Rs 4,599 crore was for new projects and Rs 1,006 was for ongoing old projects.
The funds released so far included Rs 1,888 crore earmarked under the "special assistance" head for the ongoing projects under special plan or BRGF, released in two instalments of Rs 1,767 crore and Rs 121 crore on February 8 and March 31, respectively.
Nitish's missive was in response to a letter by Jaitley written to him in April, in which he had communicated the action taken after a letter written by Nitish to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 1, with regard to financial share and requirements of the state.
Though Nitish has expressed his gratefulness over the communication of steps taken in response of his letter to Modi, he has also pointed out: "For the 2015-16 financial year, the state government had sent a proposal for release of Rs 5,365 crore to Niti Aayog for completion of new and old ongoing projects. But only Rs 1,888 crore was released at the fag end of the last quarter of financial year 2015-16."
Nitish has also stressed that of the Rs 4,599 crore released for nine new projects till date, the state has incurred an expenditure of Rs 4,988 crore of which utilisation certificates worth Rs 4,872 crore has been sent to Niti Aayog.
Similarly, an expenditure of Rs 819 crore have been made against Rs 1,006 crore released for completion of old projects, of which utilisation certificates worth Rs 719 crore has been sent to Niti Aayog. "The state government has borne an additional sum of Rs 389 crore out of its limited resources so that the implementation of the works is not impaired," Nitish said in the letter.
BRGF has seen a tug of war between the central and Bihar governments over the recent months, with Nitish alleging that it was not mentioned in the annexure of budget. The state government officials have repeatedly pointed out that central government on its part has been counting the money given under it as "special assistance".
