Congress claims the BJP-led Center underutilizes funds for the Northeast

The Congress said on Saturday that it is the only political party capable of providing justice to the states in the area and accused the Center of underutilizing the budget for the northeast.

“The ‘Bluff and Rule’ strategy of the Modi administration is still falling apart. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote on X that “the Modi government has a history of allocating big budgets to the North East and then chronically underusing these budgets in the last 10 years.”

He added that just twice since 2014 has the Narendra Modi administration fully used the funds allocated to the northeast.

“Whereas the UPA routinely used around 90% of the budget, the Modi administration only frequently uses 60% of the budget.

“The budget for FY23 was Rs 2,755 crore. The ministry barely used Rs 989 crore (35.9%) of its allotted budget, according to a June 2023 report from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the former Union minister stated.

Ramesh said that in 2020–21, 52% of the money was used for the North East Road Sector Development project, while only 34% of the funds were used for the North East Special Infrastructure Development scheme.

The Congress representative claimed that the Modi administration brags about spending Rs 6,600 crore between 2022–2023 and 2025–2026 for the comprehensive development of the northeastern area under the PM-DevINE initiative, which was introduced in 2022.

He added that just less than ten percent of the funds—Rs 855.85 crore—under the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for the North East Region (PM-DevINE) had been sanctioned. This information was provided to the Rajya Sabha by the DoNER (Development of the North Eastern Region) ministry on December 7, 2023.

“The budget for the Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region was ‘doubled’ by the Modi administration in January 2023, ahead of elections in Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Tripura. We’re eager to learn the precise amount of funding that has really made it to the North East, given its track record of bluffing with large money allocations and stark underutilizations.

Using the hashtag “#HaathBadlegaHalaat,” Ramesh said, “@INCIndia is the only political party that can deliver justice to the states of North East India.”