By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 9: “Poor” Meghalaya seems to have no dearth of money or resources in organising mega festivals.
In its report, the NITI Aayog ranked Meghalaya as the second poorest state in the country but that could not deter the government from spending heavily on festivals.
Recently, it spent crores of rupees in organising the Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival where international stars performed. It surely is again spending big bucks on the Me.gong Festival, participated by many top performers.
While the government maintains that these festivals are needed to boost tourism in the state, some people questioned if poor Meghalaya can afford to host such mega festivals.
BJP spokesperson, M Kharkrang on Saturday said these festivals will not bring development.
“We need to concentrate on education, health care, communication and most importantly, on bringing investment to our state,” Kharkrang said.
“Our ratings are at the lowest. These festivals are only a camouflage to our dismal performance on all fronts of economic indices. Unless those at the bottom of economy are lifted to a decent standard, all our efforts will go in vain,” he added.
Apart from Shillong Cherry Blossom and Me.gong Festivals, money has been spent also on other festivals. Some more festivals are in the pipeline and the government so far does not have the statistics on how many tourists turned up at these festivals.
Civil Society Women’s Organisation president, Agnes Kharshiing said many people are questioning the reason behind such massive expenditures.
“How is the finance department allowing all these? Where is the fund coming from when our hospitals have to borrow equipment from one another?” Kharshiing asked even as she stressed on an audit to find out how funds are being utilised in the state.
Ironically, the roads in Shillong continued to be dilapidated. The condition of some major roads elsewhere in the state is equally bad. Shillong also has poorly functioning and entirely non-operational streetlights.