SHILLONG, June 29: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a huge backlog of projects and initiatives under the Home and Education departments.
“This pandemic has really affected us over one and a half years. We wanted to do many things but the pandemic has wasted everything. It is very frustrating,” Home and Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said on Tuesday.
He said the Patharkhmah college was scheduled to be started and the Shillong Engineering College was to have been completed. These have been pushed back to 2022 or beyond.
He also said various school infrastructure projects, initiatives to resolve the issues of the teachers and the students have also taken a hit due to the pandemic.
On the Home front, Rymbui rued the inability to fill up about 2,000 vacant posts in the police department despite advertisements for 1,000 posts since 2019. “The pandemic has not allowed us to go ahead at a time when people talk about the rising crimes,” he said.
The shortage of staff in many police stations and outposts has impacted the government, he added.
“We are dependent on the central government grants based on submission of utilisation certificates. The flow of funds has been affected because we have not been able to undertake the projects and submit the utilisation certificates in time,” Rymbui said.
