By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 21: Although the Tourism department will take care of almost all expenses concerning the upcoming Monolith Festival, the KHADC is making plans to earmark some amount of funds for any “unforeseen expenditure” that may emerge later so as to ensure that the festival does not face any debacle.
Talking to reporters after the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Council on Thursday, KHADC Deputy Chief Executive Member (CEM) Pynshngain N Syiem said that the EC will move a supplementary demand to earmark funds for the third edition of the Monolith Festival during the two-day special session of the Council slated for September 22 and 25.
Syiem maintained that the state government through the Tourism department will fund the festival and the Council will not be required to shell out even a rupee for the festival.
However, he said, “We decided to earmark some funds which is likely to be around Rs 10 lakh if there is any unforeseen expenditure.”
He added that in order to do that the EC will have to move a supplementary demand “since we have not allocated any funds for the Monolith Festival under the Arts and Culture department in the budget which was passed in the last session.”
The Deputy CEM also said that the EC will have to move supplementary demands also to clear the pension of few of the former MDCs. It may be mentioned that eight former MDCs had filed a petition with the High Court of Meghalaya with regard to their pending pension amounting to over Rs 24 lakhs. The court had directed the district Council to clear the arrears in the coming days.
Syiem said that they will be moving a supplementary demand for the Legislative Wing and Education departments to allocate funds which should be spent before the end of current financial year.
He added that the Council is also planning to introduce an amendment to the Khasi Hills District (Trading By Non-Tribals), Regulation, 1954, during the special session.