SHILLONG: Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma on Thursday asserted that Government has been taking necessary caution as far as equitable distribution of schemes and projects for both Khasi-Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills is concerned.
Replying to a call attention motion moved by Jemino Mawthoh (UDP) based on a news report regarding Garo Hills getting more attention than Khasi-Jaintia Hills under NLCPR schemes, the Chief Minister said that there was no discrimination in the distribution of schemes.
He said the State Government on May 24 this year had submitted a priority list of 8 schemes worth Rs 310.94 crore for funding under NLCPR to the DoNER ministry.
Later, one of the projects, building for state technical university worth Rs 30 crore was dropped from the list.
The Chief Minister said that the final NLCPR priority list consists of equivalent share of schemes worth Rs 140.49 crore for Khasi-Jaintia Hills and Rs 140.45 crore for Garo Hills.
Out of this, the DoNER in its meeting on September 13 recommended retention of five projects at a total amount of Rs 130.16 crore for submission of detailed project reports.
Among the retained five NLCPR schemes, Rs 90.96 crore worth projects is for Khasi-Jaintia Hills and Rs 39.20 for Garo Hills, he added.
The Chief Minister said that after the Government had written to DoNER ministry in September this year to drop the retained 45 projects (Rs 356.39 crore) since 2003 till 2011, the DoNER allowed retention of three new projects (Rs 245 crore) out of six submitted by the Government.
The three projects are Football stadiums at Ampati and Tura (Rs 40 crore each) and International Center for Performing Arts and Culture in Shillong (Rs 165 crore).