New Delhi, June 14: In a significant development, the Union Minority Affairs Ministry has scrapped about 58,456 “units” or small infrastructure projects that were sanctioned under a centrally sponsored socio-economic development scheme.

 

 

 

 

This came after a decision was taken to scrap these units was taken after it was found that these never took off after being proposed in 2008-09, a time when the Congress party was in power.

 

According to the ministry officials, "We have done this in consonance with the states. After having found that these units had not taken off in the past decade, we had asked the states to consider whether they want to drop the proposals altogether." The ministry appraised more than 11 lakh projects under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) since 2008-09.

 

It is pertinent to note that more than Rs 4,000 crores are lying unutilised with the state governments under various minority schemes. Even with crores lying unutilised, over 50,000 projects have been defunct for over a decade and a half.

 

According to reports, officials within the Union Minority Affairs Ministry have revealed that a large sum of money, to the tune of more than Rs 4,000 crore, remains unutilized with states under various schemes announced for minorities.

 

 

As per media reports, officials in the Ministry said, “We have now said that future projects will be sanctioned, and funds will be given based on utilisation certificates. We will also map all physical assets under the Ministry schemes through Gati Shakti and geotag them to understand the actual utilisation of funds and the building of infrastructure.”

Between the period of 2014-15 to 2021-22, an expenditure of Rs 9,37,819 lakh was incurred under this PMJVK scheme. More than 50 major projects were sanctioned during the same period and these include school buildings, hostels, and classroom aids.

It is worth noting that the Central government funds 60% of the project while 40% is shared by the state or UT governments. However, the projects are jointly sanctioned by the state and centre. Post 2014-15, projects worth Rs 17,65,904 lakh have been sanctioned by the Union Minority Affairs Ministry under this PMJVK scheme out of which the central share has been Rs 12,33,688.93 lakh.