SHILLONG: Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma has observed that maintenance of a robust financial position by any of the North Eastern states including Meghalaya is tough and it will be more challenging for the new State Government in Meghalaya due to the huge financial burden of the 5th Pay Commission which came into force last year.
Speaking to media persons after presenting the Budget estimates in the House on Friday, Conrad Sangma while terming the state’s present financial situation as tough added that the Government was trying to get in terms with sudden change in funding pattern for all the North Eastern. “The focus of the Government is to clear the backlog in certain projects besides streamlining them,” he said.
“We have to manage our resources well and stick to the austerity measures besides ensuring that the money is spent in the best possible manner,” said.
Making a clarion call to increase State’s own revenue generation, Sangma said that there was a need to get more externally-aided projects and Centrally-sponsored schemes.
According to Sangma, another challenge for the State Government is the issue of payment of salary of the SSA teachers and the upcoming National Games which requires huge exercise in terms of infrastructure as well as funding.
Sangma maintained that each department would have to find out resources from outside besides managing its own resources as well.
“It’s not going to be easy for us and we will require Centre’s support and we will have to ensure that the money is spent in the best possible manner,” he added.
On being asked about Central assistance, he said that the different State Government always requested Centre for assistance and State Government would also have to ensure that the projects were implemented on time and utilisation certificates were submitted on time, adding that the State Government would fight for a central assistance in the ratio of 90:10 for centrally-sponsored schemes.
When asked about huge funds being spent on different festivals organised by the previous Government, Sangma said that it was their policy but such kinds of initiatives must have a capping with a limited expenditure.
“As a Chief Minister, I will focus more on creating assets when it comes to tourism and though such initiatives (festivals) are required for the purpose of tourism but definitely you cannot spend 70-80 per cent of your budget on those,” he added.
Earlier, Chief Minister also maintained that the State’s fiscal deficit had gone down and the fiscal deficit in terms of GSDP has gone down 3.3 percent in comparison to 3.8 per cent last year.
When asked about the political appointments, Sangma said it is not correct to say that political appointment as Government required teams for many exercise even as he added that it depended on the Government how such boards and corporations were used and the incumbent Government would ensure that the purpose of those Boards were met.
Conrad Sangma recently met the Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley to present him an idea about the challenges which the state faced and how the last financial years had gone by.
Sangma also said that the Government couldn’t just discard the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) which was the initiative of the previous Government
Sangma reiterated that it was a Government process and the incumbent Government would try to further improve on the initiatives of the previous Government and would definitely take a review on the impact of such programmes.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that those process continue,” he added.