(a) the efforts made by the Government for COVID-19 management;
(b) the details of the funds provided by the Government to the North-Eastern States including Assam;
(c) whether the said funds were utilised within the prescribed time limit; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
The Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region
[Dr. Jitendra Singh]
(a) and (b) Ministry of Health & Family Welfare during the F.Y. 2019-20, released Rs.111.34 crore to the North Eastern (NE) States, which includes Rs.72.53 crore for Assam under National Health Mission towards management and containment of COVID-19 pandemic. Further, during F.Y. 2020-21, Rs.265.96 crore was released to the NE States, which includes Rs.180.04 crore for Assam under the India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package.
In addition, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region under North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) has sanctioned five projects worth Rs.193.32 crore in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland for strengthening health infrastructure to contain pandemic COVID-19. Against these projects, Rs.77.33 crore have been released by the Ministry to the State Governments.
Further, during 2020-21 North Eastern Council (NEC) sanctioned Rs.25.29 crore to help eight states of North Eastern Region (NER) for fighting COVID-19 pandemic. NEC also sanctioned a sum of Rs.24.96 crore toward livelihood generation for returned migrant workers of NER due to the pandemic.
(c) and (d) The funds were released by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to meet the emergent need of COVID-19 pandemic hence no time limit was prescribed for utilizing the funds. Projects sanctioned for strengthening health infrastructure of NE States for fighting pandemic COVID-19 are at various stages of implementation. The utilization certificates against the funds released by the Ministry of DoNER are not yet due.
*****