Govt’s COVID-19 expenditure shoots up to Rs 816 crore

SHILLONG, Sep 14: The Meghalaya government has spent a staggering amount of over Rs 816 crore in the fight against COVID-19 since April 2020, out of which over Rs 160 crore was expended in the last six months alone.
This information came to light on Monday in the form of a reply from Health Minister James PK Sangma to a question from North Shillong MLA Adelbert Nongrum. The question was supposed to be taken up during the question hour on Monday during other matters got precedence. Sangma, in his reply, had said that the state government has spent an amount of Rs 816,22,52,312 on COVID-19 till date. Of this, the state government spent Rs 739,66,34,312 while Rs 76,56,18,000 was borne by the Centre.
Out of the total, the government spent Rs 49,98,09,560 on infrastructure while the remaining amount of Rs 766,24,42,752 was spent for non infrastructure purpose.
Since April 2020, Meghalaya has reported 96,587 confirmed cases of COVID-19 while 1,620 persons have died so far. A simple mathematical calculation makes it clear that the state government has spent an amount of Rs 79,332 on every confirmed case of COVID-19.
The state government has paid ex gratia of Rs 50,000 to the kin of COVID-19 victims.
It may be recalled that the Health minister had informed the House during the budget session in March 2022 that the government had spent over Rs 650 crore in tackling the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic in the financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.