SHILLONG: Former KHADC chairman, PN Syiem has asked state government to come out with detailed reports on its expenditure on COVID-19.
The statement was made by Syiem as the state government had claimed to have incurred an expenditure of Rs 399 crore in its six months’ fight against COVID-19.
He said that Manipur which had double the number of COVID-19 cases than Meghalaya have spent only Rs 60 crore whereas Meghalaya with around 9000 cases has spent Rs 399 crore. It may be mentioned that Manipur as of now has more than 18000 COVID-19 cases.
The major expenses in Manipur went into COVID-19 testing, setting up and operating of quarantine centres, COVID-19 care centres across the districts and facilitating returnees from various metro cities amid the lockdown.
“The state government here must come with detailed report instead of a rough report on the expenditure with break up of different components,” Syiem said.
When asked if he sees the expense of Rs 399 crore by Meghalaya Government as a scam, he said that he cannot say anything on the matter until and unless, a detailed report on the expenditure is shared by the government.
Earlier, Meghalaya Government had maintained that out of Rs 399 crore, Rs 188.9 crore was spent to meet the expenditures of the coronre, procurement of PPEs, ambulances, lab and surveillances and other facilities under the National Health Mission (NHM).
Under the Director of Health Services, Rs 82.40 crore was spent for procurement of machines, oxygen cylinders, BP monitors, ventilators, surgical gloves, thermal scanners and others items. Under the Chief Minister Special Grant — which included payment to stranded citizens of the State, bringing them back and cost of their kits — an amount of Rs 14.70 crore was spent.
Under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, Rs 7.40 crore was spent on ambulances, bio-medical waste vans and charges for quarantine centres.
The government has also maintained that the Labour department has spent Rs 51 crore under the ‘Chief Minister Relief Against Wage Loss’ scheme to around two lakh people of the State and for the registered workers under the ‘Construction and Other Building Workers Act’ besides an amount of Rs 15 crore as advance sanctions were released to 60 legislators for providing assistance to the citizens in their respective constituencies beside other expenditures.
When asked about the performance of the government as far as handling COVID-19, he said that though government has tried its best to tackle the virus but it has failed in many fronts but due to the cooperation of Dorbar Shnong, the situation somehow has been handled.