By Our Special Correspondent
Shillong: Paragraph 13 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution is captioned : Estimated receipts and expenditure pertaining to autonomous councils to be shown separately in annual financial statement.
According to sources in the Council the Government should have first placed the budget in the Council for it to be discussed in camera before placing it in the legislature.
Para 13 states “The estimated receipts and expenditure pertaining to an autonomous district which are to be credited to, or is to be made from the Consolidated Fund of the State of Meghalaya shall be first placed before the District Councils for discussion and then after such discussion be shown separately in the annual financial statement of the State to be laid before the Legislature of the State under Article 202.”
In that case the budget pertaining to the Councils should have first been discussed by them before it is imposed. Interestingly this appears to have slipped the minds of the Minister District Council Affairs, HDR Lyngdoh.
To make matters worse, even the CEM of the KHADC is an MLA himself. Other senior ministers like Mr Prestone Tynsong and former minister Paul Lyngdoh have also been Councillors. Sources in the Council wonder how this lapse could have slipped their attention.
When contacted, Paul Lyngdoh said this is a clear indication that MLAs who are also presently Members of the District Councils have not read the salient points of the Sixth Schedule. Repeated attempts to contact DCA Minister HDR Lyngdoh and Forest Minister, Prestone Tynsong for their comments failed.
Sources say that the Government is not adequately briefed on its linkages with the District Councils as envisaged by Para 13 of the Sixth Schedule. When asked how this lapse could be redressed they said it is the first time this has happened and it just goes to show that Councillors themselves do not read the Sixth Schedule seriously. “It depends on the Councillors how they take up this issue with the State Government,” the sources quipped.
