Kohima: Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio has sought the intervention of the Centre to revive an infrastructure project at Kohima Orphanage and Destitute Home that has been left abandoned since last year.
In a letter addressed to Union minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy, Rio urged the Centre to consider the matter as a “special case”.
Rio highlighted that the North Eastern Council (NEC) project — ‘Infrastructure Development at Kohima Orphanage Home’ — was sanctioned at a total cost of Rs 2.84 crore during 2017-18 and the first installation of Rs 19.52 lakh was subsequently released.
The CM said that even after the state released its share, the project was abruptly declared closed on “as is where is” basis and the state government was directed to refund the unspent released amount with accrued interest.
“It may be placed on record that the Kohima Orphanage Home is a privately run charity institution and has nurtured and fostered hundreds of orphaned and abandoned children over the past few decades. It is highly unfortunate that such a project has been so regrettably cut off,” the CM said.
In this regard, Rio requested the Union minister to revive the project “for the welfare of society, as a special case”.
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Adviser to the chief minister Abu Metha took to Twitter on Saturday to share a copy of the chief minister’s letter dated July 31.
“ThankYou Hon’ble @CmoNagaland Shri. @Neiphiu_Rio for taking up the matter on behalf of the underprivileged orphans.
Humbly request the @MDoNER_India & @NEC_GoI & Hon’ble Shri @kishanreddybjp ji to take a sympathetic approach,” he tweeted.
As EastMojo reported earlier, the NEC had sanctioned the first instalment of Rs 19.57 lakh in March 2018 for the project. The grant was directed to be utilised on the project as approved by the NEC administrative order.
The state government was required to release the state share immediately on receipt of the central share and the certificate of actual utilization of the grant was required to be submitted within 12 months of release by the NEC.
At the time of conveying the sanction, the NEC had also mentioned that the entire assistance in the form of grant is “provisional” and is subject to adjustment on the basis of audited figures of expenditure of the NEC plan and scheme for 2017-18.
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Accordingly, the state government released its share of Rs 2,17,000 against the project in April 2019. Through an office memorandum in May 2020, the NEC informed the closure of the funding which had come to effect in March the same year.
The NEC had also directed the state government to release unspent released fund with accrued interest, to the consolidated fund of India, with acknowledgement to NEC.
