Where is the Step–mother?

We have a State government that appears to have forgotten how to utilize development funds allocated by the Centre. This is largely because during the last 13 years of Congress rule, the government itself has systematically encouraged the loot of development funds allocated by the Centre. Proof of this ‘encouragement’ is readily available from the total failure of the government to punish a single one of the several departmental heads responsible for the siphoning of the Centre’s development funds. There is no further encouragement needed to government officers to siphon out development funds than the assurance that no matter how much they loot, no one will ever get punished. So we have a situation where Rs 4,367.36 crore of the total Plan funds allocated for Assam in the fiscal year 2013–14 were not utilized. The State received an allocation of Rs 12,500 crore but was able to utilize only Rs 8,132.64 crore. And yet, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is upset at the Plan fund allocation being reduced by about Rs 3,000 crore. For the fiscal year 2014–15, about Rs 21,000 crore has been earmarked for Assam. We would like to see how much of this gets utilized and how much goes back to the Centre for the State’s failure to utilize such funds. Assam regularly complains of step–motherly treatment by the Centre. We would like to know where the stepmother is.