SHILLONG: The recent meeting of the state-level committee chaired by Chief Minister Mukul Sangma to scrutinise MLA schemes has irked many legislators as the government has decided to do away with rural roads programmes for this year and also put restriction on assisting religious groups.
The meeting held on October 19 was convened to approve Special Rural Works Programme and Construction of Rural Roads Programmes. It scrutinised MLA-wise and district-wise schemes for SRWP for 2016-17.
What irked the legislators is the portion of the proceedings of the meet that said “construction or activities which are directly related to assisting religious groups should not be allowed under the programme except for schools”.
According to some legislators, this would mean that the religious groups are no longer part of the society and they wondered as to what sort of secularism the government is aiming to achieve.
Another blow to the legislators is that the meeting decided to discontinue the Construction of Rural Roads Programmes (CRRP) with effect from 2016-17.
As per the proceedings of the meeting, the sanction order already issued should be de-sanctioned.
However, some legislators felt that every MLA had already made commitment to completing several roads and this will land them in difficulty.
