SHILLONG: Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma and Opposition MLA, HM Shangpliang on Tuesday entered into a heated debate on the issue of curtailing expenditures by the MDA Government during the one-day special session of the state Assembly here on Tuesday.
The Chief Minister asserted that the government would come up with a White Paper of departments to see their performance in the last five years and how the functioning of the departments can be further improved.
Moving the discussion, MLA from Mawsynram, HM Shangpliang attacked the state government for not curtailing expenditures while the government was also slammed for not getting any benefits out of the different festivals which are held in the state.
HM Shangpliang said that the Finance Department had issued directives on austerity measures but all such directives remained only in paper even as he the criticized the government for making 65 political appointments besides appointing 5-6 advisors which is straining the state exchequer
Terming the appointments as a waste of public money, he asked the Chief Minister to review the matter while castigating the Chief Minister and the Cabinet Ministers for their foreign trips
The MLA from Mawsynram earlier questioned the frequent visit of the Union Ministers to Shillong with nothing in their pocket
The legislator from Mawsynram also criticized the Government over different festivals such as Cherry blossom festival, Autumn festival and asked about the number of foreign tourists who visited these festivals.
“ Everyone is going to Delhi in the name of meeting Union ministers to bring funds but how much funds have you brought” he questioned
Replying to the discussion, Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma hit back at Shangpliang saying the number of political appointees in the past was muchhigher than the what was at present.
He also clarified that the state government never organized the Autumn Festival which was organized by few entrepreneurs even as he added that the concerned MLA might find Cherry Blossom flower ugly now but he loved it few years back.
Sangma also informed he had asked all the revenue generating departments to be given a target to increase their revenue by 30 per cent and revenue generating departments have been asked to use best technology for achieving the target.
Defending the visits of state ministers to New Delhi, he said that the MDA government had held continuous meetings with the Union Government and this was the reason, the budgetary allocation for Meghalaya under central Road Funds had been doubled while the allocation under PMGSY had been increased from Rs 100-170 crore to Rs 500 crore.