With less than a month to go for the Assembly polls in Nagaland and Meghalaya, the outgoing regimes are facing charges of not using Central funds for rural development.Nagaland Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader S.C. Jamir has been accused of not carrying out the rural development projects satisfactorily, as only 50 per cent of the works have been completed.Annasaheb M.K. Patil, Union Minister of State for Rural Development, who toured the two states last week, revealed that while the Centre had allocated over Rs 86 crore to Nagaland for the projects, most remain either incomplete or not started. ‘‘The Centre has been very generous to the states of the Northeast, but Nagaland could not implement the schemes properly and utilise the funds due to reasons best known to the state government,’’ the Union Minister said.Under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) programme, for instance, Nagaland was released Rs 25.53 crore during 2001-2002. But while the state government could not carry out the schemes satisfactorily, it also failed to take the second installment from the Centre. Despite Nagaland facing severe water crisis especially in Kohima, the capital and most other district towns and villages, the state government has not submitted any proposal for Swajal Dhara, a Centrally-sponsored scheme for drinking water supply. Similarly, under the wasteland development project, as many as 17 proposals forwarded by Nagaland were approved by the Centre.
