SHILLONG: A day after the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, tabled a tax-free deficit budget of Rs 1,150 crore for the financial year 2018-19, Opposition Congress party has expressed its unhappiness saying the budget misses many important issues.
Speaking to The Shillong Times over the phone, Congress spokesperson, Zenith Sangma rued that the budget did not mention anything about Lokayukta and other steps which the previous Government took to combat corruption.
He also said that even the Governor did not mention anything about Lokayukta when he addressed the House on the first day of the session
“We had laid stress to fight corruption and when nothing to fight corruption is mentioned in the Governor’s speech and even budget speech, it shows the new Government does not have any intention to fight corruption,” Zenith Sangma said.
Sangma pointed out that any budget should be comprehensive and balanced in every sector and he would give a more detailed statement after going through the budget in detail.
The Budget of the MDA government, which is barely three weeks old, was on expected lines without any frills or surprises. With no new programme and policy, it reflected most of the initiatives of the previous government.
On the other hand, CSWO President Agnes Kharshiing said that the deficit budget indicates that there was a big debt on the Government.
She says that a huge money has gone to C&RD which has big hallow schemes and the schemes are overlapping whereas no budget has been earmarked for Lokayukta which has been created to put a check on scams
“There should have been a budget for Lokayukta in view of the urgency to curtail corruption,” she said while asking the State Government come clean on any loan taken from Asian Development Bank, World Bank or any other financial agency.
