Meghalaya: Nothing to cheer about

SHILLONG: While Finance Minister  Arun Jaitley’s Budget offered some important projects to Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya failed to get anything despite Chief Minister Mukul Sangma  coming up with his pet project ‘Destination Meghalaya’ aimed attracting investment in critical sectors like education, health care, hospitality and investment on renewable natural resources.
In the budget presented on Saturday, the Centre sanctioned an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for Assam, Indian Institute of Science and Education Research for  Nagaland, and Centre for Film Production, Animation and Gaming for Arunachal Pradesh.
This is the second blow to Meghalaya  after the 14th Finance Commission awarding the least amount of money compared to other Northeastern states.
Meghalaya which is reeling under severe finical crunch will find it tough to sail through the problems in the wake of NGT ban on coal mining in the State.
The Union budget does not bail out Meghalaya which also faces severe unemployment problems.
Meghalaya had sought funds or viable alternate livelihood projects from the Centre to make good for the losses incurred due to the NGT ban on coal mining, but in vain.
The State Government is yet to react on the Central budget.
Meanwhile, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) in charge  Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER), , Dr Jitendra Singh  thanked the Union Finance Minister  Arun Jaitley for  sanctioning AIIMS in Assam, Indian Institute of Science and Education Research in Nagaland, and Centre for Film Production, Animation and Gaming in Arunachal Pradesh.
Dr. Singh said, even as the budget has been overall hailed across the country by all sections of society including the middle class, elder citizens as well as youth and pensioners, Jaitley has been particularly sensitive towards the peripheral states of  the  Northeast during the two successive budgets presented by him within a short span of nine months after the taking over of the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The Minister said he is planning to host an event for film industry in Mumbai in order to showcase the potential of Northeast to film units looking for scenic locations for shooting.
From this point of view, he said, the facility of Institute of Film Production in Northeast itself will act as an incentive for the Bollywood and other film makers to travel to Northeast without much hassles and carry out the film shooting work in a cost-effective and easy manner.