SHILLONG: The North Eastern Council (NEC) has sanctioned three projects for Meghalaya during 2018-2019.
Replying to a query raised by Congress legislator Mayralborn Syiem during the question hour, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma informed that the first project sanctioned was construction of a boys’ and girls’ hostel of NEIMA’s orphanage-cum-boarding school at Lad Mynrieng, Pynursla, at an estimated cost of Rs 1.94 lakh.
The second project sanctioned by NEC was construction of the new building blocks for master education at St Mary’s College of Teacher Education, Shillong, at an estimated cost of Rs 334.18 lakh. The third project was for construction of the 40-km Rymbai-Bataw-Borsora-Jalaphur road at an estimated cost of Rs 94.19 lakh.
According to the chief minister, NEC has released an amount of Rs 10 lakh each for the first and second projects, adding that no fund was released till date for the third one.
Replying to a supplementary question raised by Syiem, Sangma said during 2018-2019, the government had received Rs 38 crore out of which Rs 35 crore was for the previous year’s project.
The chief minister, however, informed that the 24 schemes which had been approved by NEC during 2017-2018 had already been sanctioned.
Replying to a supplementary query raised by Congress legislator Charles Pyngrope on the projects proposed in 2017-2018, he said due to the change in guidelines by the Centre, all the state governments in the North East have been asked to resubmit their proposal for 2017-2018.
“After a long process, the government finally re-submitted the 2017-2018 projects. During the last one year, a lot of stress has been laid on the 2017-2018 projects and finally this led to the sanctioning of the projects,” he added.
The chief minister, however, informed that the projects for 2018-2019 which the government had already prepared could not be approved since the Programme Identification Committee is yet to meet.
