By HH Mohrmen
At the very outset it should be made clear that this piece of writing is not an expert critique of the budget but a layman’s observation and comment on the debate that was going on in the House in the past few days of the budget session of Meghalaya Assembly. And frankly speaking the debate in the sessions has not been able to provide us with necessary information which will make a layman like this writer wiser.
If we are to only judge from the report on the debate in the House during the current session it is clear that the State is in a big financial mess. What is also obvious from the debates particularly on the budget 2016, is the fact that the government instead of addressing this vital issue is acting contrary to what commonsense dictates.
We can also conclude that the future of the state is insecure not because it is neck deep in debt, but because no plan was proposed to help the economy of the state recover except by increasing tax on petroleum products and liquor. Dr Sangma should at least thank his stars for the fall in the petroleum prices in the global market which has enabled him to increase taxes on petroleum products in the state. And instead of passing the benefits to the people, he chose to enhance taxes for lavish government spending. And the irony is in spite of fiscal deficit, the government instead of introducing austerity measure to narrow down the revenue and spending gap is instead on a spending spree.
The CM presents a more than one thousand crore deficit budget but in spite of the huge deficit, no measure was introduced to revive the state’s economy which is being affected by the ban on coal mining. The government is yet to come up with plans and strategies to create employment avenues in the coal mining area be it farm or non-farm sector to address the livelihood problem of the people affected by the ban. Fishery as a livelihood activity is still not on the radar of the government because it has not even initiated a process to conduct any kind of study to declare the polluted rivers in the coal mining areas dead. If we are to have any plans to reclaim the rivers, we need data and statistics of the current status of rivers like those downstream of river Myntdu, Kupli, Lukha and Lunar so that the government can start reclamation work on these rivers.
A layman would expect that a Government which is neck deep in debt should try to control or temporarily stop spending which can be kept in abeyance, but that has not happened. Instead the government has instead announced the creation of four more Community and Rural Development block and an equal number of sub divisions in the state which is not unnecessary but the question is – where will the money come from? The question here is also about the timing. No doubt anything that brings governance closer to the door step of the people is to be welcomed, but why not wait till the economy or financial health of the state recovers? Dr Sangma still has two more years till election so why did he not wait till the economy of the state recovers before introducing these measures.
The creation of 15 new police stations in the state of which the maximum numbers are proposed for militant hit Garo hills is also a move welcomed by right minded citizens of the state, although some would conclude that it is a little too late but as the saying goes, ‘better late than never.’ But the question that begs the answer is with regards to the MLA development scheme. Why is the government in hurry to raise the fund allocation for the scheme from one to two crore per annum?
The economy of the state is already in a bad shape, and yet instead of postponing the enhancement of the MLA schemes, the government decided to double the amount. The most important question is the impact of the scheme on the development of the state. How effective was the delivery system of the scheme? Has any impact assessment study been done to find out if it has really benefitted the people? The other pertinent question is, whether there is any chance of the scheme being manipulated for the MLA’s own vested interest? And if there is no mechanism in place to check the delivery of the scheme, the other question is, how can we check that there is no duplication of work using this scheme and other central and state government schemes? We already have a national scheme in place like MNREGS and DRDA for community rural development and there are also many more scheme for urban development, The question is whether we have a mechanism in place to check that there is no duplicating of works by using these many schemes.
The MLA scheme which comes up to 120 crore per year and a total of 600 crores at the end of every five year term is a huge amount of money. The point is not what or where the MLAs will spend the money but rather how will all the 60 MLAs will execute the schemes. Many of the MLAs use the scheme as bait to increase their chances of getting re-elected in the next election and that is also why most of them spend the funds only towards the end of the five year term. This is a common practice by most of the MLAs and we all know why. If this is how the scheme is misused then is it fair to other candidates contesting against the sitting MLA when they were not similarly provided funds to buy votes?
It is rather amusing to note that in the Assembly the MLAs were debating about Rabies instead of debating about disease like Zica or even T.B., Cancer and other dreaded diseases which are on rampage in many areas of the state.
The dual post has caught the ruling Congress in the wrong foot because the Government has not disqualified P.N. Syiem who still is the only Congressman who continues to hold two posts. Ardent Basaiawmoit has every right question the Congress’ double standards because he along with 7 others had resigned from the office of the MDC. So why this special treatment towards a fellow Congressman? Will P N Syiem refund the benefits that he had withdrawn when he continued to hold two posts even after the Act was passed in the Assembly? Syiem himself is in a catch 22 because if he resigns his Membership in the District Council, he will be branded as somebody who is just taking the people for a ride and all his efforts to show that he is serious in protecting the tradition will go in vain and he will no longer be treated as the Hero of the Jaitbynriew. If he retains his membership in the State Legislative Assembly he knows that he will have to eat a humble pie because Dr Sangma will still rule the roost at least till the 2018 election.
Again if Syiem retains the membership in the DC, he knows that there are already plenty of takers for the LA seat waiting for him to resign and Dr Sangma already has somebody close by in the form of a senior bureaucrat in the government who is waiting for the opportunity to contest from this constituency.
Another important subject that has not been debated in the house yet is the unemployment problem in the state. If the economy of the state is to grow, the government should create employment avenues for the youth in the state particularly the educated section of the society. But sadly, the house did not find time to debate about this very important topic which can one day lead the state to chaos.
Meghalaya was created as an autonomous state in April 2, of 1970 and as a full-fledged state on January 21, 1972, which means the legislators we will help electing in 2018 will be responsible for the state’s golden jubilee celebration and that will also usher the next half century journey of the state. The question that we need to ask ourselves is, whether we are happy with the last forty years of our statehood and whether we have any plans for the next fifty years of Meghalaya? The answer must be blowing in the strong gusts of the March winds!