COVID expenditure mind-boggling: TMC

SHILLONG, Sep 16: The state government was questioned in the Assembly on the expenditure of a whopping Rs 816.22 crore in the fight against COVID-19. Of the total amount, over Rs 160 crore was spent in the last six months alone.
Speaking on the matter, TMC’s George B Lyngdoh said the amount spent was mind-boggling, perhaps one of the highest by a state in the country. The state government spent Rs 739.66 crore while the Centre spent Rs 76.56 crore.
A total of Rs 49.98 crore was spent on infrastructure development while the remaining Rs 766.24 crore was spent on non-infrastructure purpose.
Joining in the discussion, Mawlai MLA PT Sawkmie appreciated the efforts of the government and the health workers in the fight against the pandemic.
Stating that the figure presented is Rs 816 crore which is a huge amount, he asked the government to provide a detailed breakup of the spending on infrastructure, logistics and others so that people have no doubt about it.
Substituting for Health Minister James PK Sangma who was absent, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the numbers look high but these were urgent and emergent situations for which the state government had to go the extra mile to ensure it did everything in its capacity to ensure different services were provided. The CM said the government spent close to Rs 249 crore on medicines, equipment and supplies; close to Rs 43.68 crore on infrastructure, almost Rs 20 crore on incentives given to ASHAs, nearly Rs 14 crore in giving support to private hospitals, around Rs 17 crore for operational cost of vaccination, inclusive of campaign mode and support to public health services; about Rs 18.38 crore for IT-related interventions and around Rs 19.58 crore for human resources.
He said the government had to spend the money as it could not take chances with human lives.
“We saw results of that. I am not saying everything went perfect but when compared to a large number of states, we were able to tackle the situation better,” Sangma said.