TURA: The first shopping complex of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council was opened at Rongjeng town of East Garo Hills with its inauguration by Tura Lok Sabha MP Conrad K Sangma on Friday afternoon.
The construction of the first floor of the three-storey building comprising of ten rooms has been constructed with 60 percent of the released funds. The entire project is estimated at Rs 95 lakh.
Speaking at the inauguration of the new building before a large gathering, Conrad Sangma expressed his gratitude to the BJP-led NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for release of Rs 100 crores special central assistance for various developmental works of the district council through which the Rongjeng complex also came into being.
“The central government sanctioned Rs 1000 Crores for the different district councils in the north east and GHADC received Rs 100 crores. This is the first time a government at the centre recognized the importance of the tribal and their district councils and released a special assistance fund,” said Conrad Sangma while speaking at the inauguration.
Recalling his meeting with Prime minister Modi and union finance minister Arun Jaitley, the Tura MP said that he offered his thanks and conveyed the gratitude of the people of Garo Hills for the central government’s keen interest to fund developmental works for the district council areas.
He added that the finance minister had categorically told him that funds would not be a constraint for developmental works provided it is utilized well.
He said that the sanctioning of the 100 crore rupees had helped GHADC to initiate a number of projects including the construction of a tribal museum of the council, a state-of-the-art court house and a hostel for the MDCs.
“This project at Rongjeng is just one among many that are going to come up in other towns of Garo Hills. There will be 16 more such shopping complexes coming up under the district council region,” revealed Sangma while appreciating the Rongjeng MDC, Metrinson G Momin, for the timely completion of the project in his constituency.
He also briefed the gathering about the central government’s initiate to improve road communication in Garo Hills and beyond by funding several major projects.
Conrad Sangma spoke about the central government’s sanction of Rs 1500 Crore for a state highway from Baghmara-Maheskola- Mahadeo up to Ranikor in South West Khasi Hills, the Rs 500 Crore funding for the Tura-Dalu national Highway with a Bypass and the NH-62 Pattargittim to Dalu via Baghmara, Gasuapara and Dimapara with a sanction of five hundred crore rupees.
The Tura MP also lashed out at the Congress for criticising the previous NPP-led executive committee in GHADC for leaving behind a ‘financial mess’ before leaving office.
“We received empty coffers when we took over the council in October 2015. Salaries of employees were pending for seven months and the council share of royalty from the state amounting to around 30 Crores was withdrawn in advance by the outgoing EC,” alleged Conrad Sangma.
He said that despite these setbacks, the new EC searched for ways to strengthen the financial position and found that the state transport department owed GHADC 18 Crore in registration fees for vehicles since the last 10 years.
According to the Tura MP, the GHADC requires a whooping Rs 4.5 Crores every month to pay salaries for its staff which has burgeoned to 2200 workers after six hundred new faces were given employment by the previous EC.
“If we don’t take steps to improve the GHADC there could be a time in the future when we may lose it. Strong decisions need to be taken by a strong leadership,” said Conrad Sangma.