SHILLONG, Nov 27: Congress MLA, PT Sawkmie on Saturday said Meghalaya is poor as it is not a revenue-generating state and the Centre also has not been able to provide much assistance to it.
The statement was made in the context of NITI Aayog’s first Multi-dimensional Poverty Index report released on Friday. Meghalaya has been listed as the fifth-poorest state in the country and the poorest in the North East.
“We are a low revenue-generating state and our revenue collection has been very less due to COVID,” Sawkmie said.
He said whatever money the state received has been spent in fighting the pandemic. The funds from Centre have not been also forthcoming, he added.
Talking about the poor rankings in education and health sectors, the MLA said the condition of the SSA teachers is not good in the state as the Centre has not been able to release the funds. In the health sector, NEIGRIHMS lacks infrastructure and specialists like AIIMS and other such institutes, he said.
According to the NITI Aayog report, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the poorest states.
Bihar’s 51.91% population is poor, followed by 42.16% in Jharkhand, 37.79% in Uttar Pradesh, 36.65% in Madhya Pradesh and 32.67% in Meghalaya.
Among the Northeastern states, Assam is the sixth poorest with 32.67%, followed by Nagaland (10th with 25.23%), Arunachal Pradesh (11th with 24.27%), Manipur (14th with 17.89%), Tripura (16th with 16.65%) and Mizoram (22nd with 9.80%).
