Gogoi government counters BJP's charges on fund utilization

GUWAHATI: State industry and commerce minister Pradyut Bordoloi on Monday refuted Assam BJP chief Sarbananda Sonowal's charge that the Assam government is yet to provide utilization certificate for central funds worth Rs 10,000 crore, allocated in previous budgets.
"The state's financial position is secure, especially compared to what it had been under Asom Gana Parishad.The state government received Rs 100 crore from Asian Development Bank because of good financial management. Technical problems resulted in the delay in submitting the utilization certificate as we received central funds at the end of March. We cannot spend a large chunk of the funds before March 31. Even states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Punjab delayed submitting their utilization certificates," Bordoloi said.
He said the state government has planned to come up with advance skill training for youths aspiring to work in various sectors across the country. Bordoloi said eight lakh youngsters from Assam are working in different states of the country in different sectors.
He added that the state government has already written to Sonowal, also the Union minister of state for youth welfare and skill development, for providing advance training to youths in the state.
"We have sought technical support from the ministry to implement this project," Bordoloi said
The minister said a survey conducted by the state's industry department has shown that around three lakh youths from the state are engaged by security agencies, while the remaining five lakh are engaged by IT, hospitality, tourism, information technology and healthcare industries.
Bordoloi said these youths annually remit around Rs 280 crore to the state. He added that with advanced skill development training, they can increase their salaries in the job market.
"The employability of the youths will increase manifold if their skills are upgraded. We want to improve their skills through our multi-disciplinary skill development centres in each block of the state," Bordoloi said.
He added that the skill development centres would also help increase the flow of money as the youths will have better employment prospects.
Bordoloi also refuted the Sonowal's charge recently that the state government was yet to provide utlisation status of fund to the tune of Rs 10,000 Crore allocated in previous budgets by the centre.
"The financial position is good enough that what was under the Asom Gana Parishad rule prior to 2001. The state government received Rs 100 Crore from Asian Development Bank because of good financial management. There are some technical problems for the delay in submitting utilization certificate as we received central funds at the end of March. So we cannot spend large chunk of the fund before March 31. Even states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab and other states had delayed in submitting utilization certificate," Bordoloi said.