The advance disbursement covers one full month’s salary and pension for approximately 50,000 govt staff and over 30,000 pensioners
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 20: Days ahead of Christmas, the Meghalaya government has front-loaded a massive financial outlay, unlocking salaries, pensions, wages, and pending bills in a single coordinated release aimed at easing pressure on households and accelerating festive activity across the state.
The advance disbursement covers one full month’s salary and pension for approximately 50,000 government employees and more than 30,000 pensioners. Casual and contractual workers across departments have also been included in the advance payment cycle.
Explaining the rationale behind the move, Commissioner and Secretary in-charge of Finance Dr Vijay Kumar said in a statement issued on Saturday, “The Finance Department has released advance payment of one month’s salary and pensions benefitting approximately 50,000 employees and over 30,000 pensioners to amplify the celebrations of the festive season. Additionally, advance payment has also been made for all the casual and contractual employees working across the state.”
The financial release translates into Rs 348.1 crore towards salaries and Rs 93.4 crore for pensions, along with Rs 9.7 crore earmarked for casual workers’ wages and Rs 4.1 crore for contractual employees. Parallelly, the state cleared Rs 255.5 crore for the three autonomous district councils to address both current salary requirements and accumulated arrears.
A substantial portion of the December release was directed at clearing contractors’ dues. Under Major Works (object head 53), Rs 416.1 crore was released, while Minor Works (object head 57) accounted for another Rs 154.7 crore. Department-wise, the Public Works Department received the highest allocation at Rs 256.4 crore. This was followed by Community and Rural Development with Rs 102.9 crore, Urban Affairs with Rs 102.5 crore, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare at Rs 69.5 crore, Public Health Engineering at Rs 68.6 crore, Sports and Youth Affairs and Power departments with Rs 60 crore each, and Health and Family Welfare with Rs 14 crore.
The festive financial push also extended to beneficiary-centric schemes. An amount of Rs 23 crore has been transferred through Direct Benefit Transfer to 92,051 beneficiaries under the Focus+ scheme.
Putting the scale of spending in perspective, Kumar said the Finance Department released a total of Rs 1,602.9 crore from state resources during December alone, registering a 30.8 per cent increase compared to the corresponding period last year, with the objective of supporting Christmas-season requirements across Meghalaya.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who currently holds charge of the Finance Department, conveyed his Christmas and New Year greetings to the people of the state.
