The Union Minister of State (Independent) for Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju recently claimed that majority of funds sanctioned under his initiatives have not been properly utilized in the state.
Rijiju cited an example of the Khelo India initiative- under which 17 projects were sanctioned for Arunachal Pradesh-and not a single of them has been completed.
This is a serious allegation, and coming from the Union minister, who is also an MP from the state, it deserves serious attention of the state government.
The projects sanctioned under the Khelo India are being taken up with a motive to develop sports facilities and to provide required infrastructure to budding sportspersons.
After the concern raised by the MoS, the state’s Youth Affairs and Sports Minister, Mama Natung on Tuesday reviewed the progress of projects under Khelo India and asked the officers of the department to complete all projects on time. Hopefully, Natung will continue to review the progress of these projects.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are several other such projects funded by various ministries which have not been properly implemented.
Such an act not only deprives people of development project but also causes massive losses of government funds and hurts the image of the state. If the government of Arunachal Pradesh continues to fail to properly implement the centrally-funded projects in the future, the government of India may be reluctant to fund any projects in the state.
It is time that the state government strictly monitor all the ongoing major projects so that such cases do not arise again.