SHILLONG: Narrating a few anomalies in the previous Congress-led government, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday likened himself to a new pilot who saved a turbulent plane from disaster.
Throughout the reply to the debate on governor’s address, the chief minister took a dig at the previous government, which according to him, brought the state to the brim of disaster.
“I will start with a story of a pilot who could not control the disturbance and it was only a new pilot who could contain the turbulence,” Sangma said.
Slamming the previous government over the poor financial condition of the state, Sangma said the state was about to collapse in the turbulence but the MDA government has managed the situation somehow but a lot more is still required to be done.
He alleged that the previous government had not released funds for the old age pension under the CM’s Social Assistance Scheme from 2017-18 and hence the MDA government had to spend Rs 114 crore on the scheme.
Citing another example, he said that ASHA workers in the state were not paid their salary since 2014 and the present government recently paid Rs 20 crore out of the Rs 40-50-crore workers’ dues.
He also criticised the previous government over poor power scenario in the state as he informed that the state government has to pay over Rs 570 crore to NEEPCO for the power dues and 80 percent of the dues were accumulated till 2018.
“If the previous government had paid the dues on time, we would not have the faced the problem of power cuts today,” the chief minister said.
Sangma also took a jibe at the previous government for sanctioning projects worth over Rs 200-300 crore just few months before the Assembly elections in 2017 by going beyond the permissible limit. The result was that the government could not give new projects in 2018-19.
Reiterating that the state government is going to bring white papers on all departments, he said that the process of preparing the white paper for Agriculture Department has started and it shows that organic agar and bamboo plantation scheme was implemented in 2015 without any guidelines. The guidelines were framed only in 2016, he added.
He said Megha-LAMP (Meghalaya Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project) is another project that has been sanctioned for Rs 1,189 crore.
He said the MLAs thought this programme was only for construction of roads. Due to differences over the purpose of the scheme, the programme was in cold storage for four years.
Even though the focus was on roads, only Rs 71 crore was earmarked for rural roads under Megha-LAMP.
Sangma also said the previous government could not construct the permanent Assembly building but the MDA government was firm on building the new Assembly for which work has been allotted even as he hoped that the new building will be ready before the state celebrates its 50 years of existence.
He also said the ISBT in Tura was inaugurated recently and now the government wants to turn the project and its surrounding areas into a logistic hub.
He added that the work for the Mawlai bypass, which has been pending for many years, is nearing completion and will be completed by June or July.
The chief minister also informed that the state is currently availing funds from the tribal sub-plan scheme.
