Former Tripura CM Biplab Deb

The Union Ministry of Rural Development has sanctioned Rs 358 crore for maintenance of roads and completion of half-done construction works, which was started during Left Front regime.

Officials in Agartala on July 4 said, in a letter to Principal Secretary PWD of Tripura SR Kumar, the ministry informed that keeping the development plans in mind, the Centre has provided an additional amount to the state.

“The release of the money was an outcome of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the sidelines of recent NITI Aayog meeting,” the officials said.

“The amount would help the government to complete the projects and infrastructure development works under Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojana. In maintenance of roads, modern technology and materials would be used as per the rules,” they said.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi two weeks ago and sought additional funds for development works and resumption of other projects pending for a long time due to insufficient resources in the state finance.

Meanwhile, the Central government has given its nod to Tripura government for going ahead with World Bank-aided project of Rs 299.96 crore for construction of 42 roads covering 307.23 kilometres where state government will contribute Rs 33.32 crore, officials stated.

Tripura government had earlier taken decision to take a loan of Rs 200 crore either from HUDCO or Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), besides, seeking special package of Rs 358 crore from NITI Aayog to manage the financial crunch and continue the ongoing development projects.

Deputy Chief Minister also holding finance portfolio Jishnu Dev Varma accused Manik Sarkar-led left front government, for the financial crisis and alleged that the previous government had approved as many as 231 construction projects under 21 departments without any planning and initiating work before managing fund.

“The Public Works Department (PWD) had approved altogether 12 projects but no assurance of fund,” Dev Varma said, adding that all the projects were left half-done for the past one year, as the government was not able to pay the dues to the contractors.

According to him, the state government has to pay Rs 421.1 crore to contractors for completion of the works. There is no provision of fund for maintenance of those buildings.

“Considering the situation the government is now on the move to take a loan of Rs 200 crore to complete the half-done building constructions,”he stated.

“Apart from this, chief minister Deb has been making efforts to get Rs 358 crore from the NITI Aayog to initiate development work as per our commitment and vision and finally it has yielded the result. The BJP-IPFT government inherited direct liabilities of Rs 12000 crore and indirect financial burden of Rs 5000 crore from it’s predecessor,”he added.

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