SHILLONG, Nov 21: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Sunday demanded of the state government to constitute an independent commission to probe the ‘financial crisis’ faces by the government, besides alleged leakage of government revenue and misuse of public money.
In a statement issued here, HYC president Robert June Kharjahrin said that the proposed commission will make recommendations on how to improve the financial position of the state exchequer.
“As a state, we should not be happy by carrying a begging bowl to the Centre. It is not right to depend on the financial assistance from the Centre on everything whether it is the salaries of teachers and development of critical infrastructures like roads, schools and hospitals,” Kharjahrin said.
He pointed out that the state government faces difficulty in paying the salaries of government employees as well as teachers, adding that many developmental projects could not take off due to poor financial position.
“We have seen many of the ministers had to knock on the doors of various central ministries for funds which are due to the state. The ministers are being looked as the people who are carrying bowl to beg from Delhi,” he said.
He said that the state government should have a corpus fund to be able to meet the emergency requirements if there is delay in releasing funds on part of the Centre.
The HYC president also suggested stringent legislations to deal with corruption and also to empower institutions like the Lokayukta. “The state also needs a strong vigilance committee right from the village level to allow the citizens to be part and parcel on the growth and developmental initiatives of the government,” Kharjahrin said.
He questioned if the present financial crisis which the state is going through is due to ‘wasteful expenditure’ on perks and benefits of political appointees. “Whether this situation arose due to the release of bills to the contractor/suppliers like in the case of Subhagya Scheme, Smart Meter Project in the MeECL, we have seen that the government had paid the bills even on the work which is not complete,” Kharjahrin added.