All the State governments in the northeast are likely to face a deduction of at least 7.5 per cent in Central funding under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), if New Delhi goes by its decision of reducing funding pattern. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is contemplating to implement the new funding policy following reports that several of the State governments were neither able to utilize the full amount sanctioned under the NRHM nor they could place doctors and health workers in districts with the worst health index. “The importance of rational and equitable deployment of human resource by the States has been strongly emphasized by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and a stipulation has been made that a failure to do so may lead to reduction in Central funding under the National Rural Health Mission up to 7.5 per cent,” said Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury. This development assumes special significance for Assam as several districts in the State neither have proper health facilities nor qualified doctors. Interestingly, the Central ministry has introduced a provision of incentives and disincentives for good and indifferent performance under the NRHM. Sector–wide reforms in areas such as responsiveness, transparency and accountability, policy and systems to provide free generic medicines to all in public facilities, quality assurance, inter–sectoral convergence, State providing more than 10 per cent increase in its annual health budget, creation of a public health cadre, etc. would attract additional allocation. On the other hand, failure to implement key conditions such as rational deployment of health and human resources, implementation of free entitlements under Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram, may lead to reduction in fund allocation. Official statistics of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare revealed that Assam utilized Rs 517.14–crore in 2012–13 out of the allocated Central fund of Rs 1054.14– crore; likewise Arunachal Pradesh utilized Rs 40.28–crore out of the allotted Central fund of Rs 74.01–crore, Meghalaya utilized Rs 79.85–crore out of the allotted Central fund of Rs 125.45–crore, Manipur utilized Rs 42.09–crore out of the released fund of Rs 114.66– crore, Nagaland utilized Rs 62.31–crore out of the released Central fund of Rs 95.78 –crore, Mizoram utilized Rs 57.78–crore out of the allotted Central fund of Rs 75.84–crore and Tripura utilized Rs 88.69–crore only out of the allotted Central fund of Rs 133.44–crore in 2012–13. “The Ministry is keeping a close watch on the performance of the State governments in the northeast which had got the status of special category States in the implementation of NRHM projects,” said a top official of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.