SHILLONG: The Congress said on Saturday the Rs 1,150-crore deficit Budget missed many issues, most importantly the formation of the Lokayukta and other measures to combat corruption.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on the phone, Congress spokesperson Zenith Sangma, while pointing out the missing Lokayukta issue, said even the Governor did not mentioned anything about it when he addressed the House on the first day of the session.
“We had laid stress to fight corruption and when nothing about fighting corruption is mentioned in the governor’s speech and even budget speech, it shows that the new government does not have any intention to fight corruption,” the opposition leader said.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma tabled the tax-free Budget for 2018-19 on Friday.
Zenith pointed out that any budget should be comprehensive and balanced in every sector and he would give a more detailed statement after thoroughly going through the Budget.
Meanwhile, CSWO President Agnes Kharshiing said the deficit budget indicated that there is a big debt on the government.
She said huge money has gone to C&RD, which has a big hallow and overlapping schemes whereas no budget has been earmarked for the Lokayukta created to put a check on scams.
Last year too, the Mukul Sangma-led government had raised allocation to C7RD to twofold keeping in line with the then chief minister’s vision to bridge the gap between government agents and the common man.
“There should have been a budget for Lokayuktas in view of the urgency to curtail corruption,” Kharshiing said while asking the state government to come clean on whether any loan had been taken from the Asian Development Bank, World Bank or any other financial agency.
