Old age pension funds released in Meghalaya

A Correspondent

SHILLONG: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday said the Old Age Pension scheme under the Chief Minister Social Assistance Programme was not released by the past government since 2017-2018.

“When this Government took over, not only it has to clear the amount for 2018-2019, but it had to also clear the amount for 2017-2018,” Conrad said.

The Chief Minister was replying to the debate on the Governor’s Address.

According to him, Rs 114 crore has to be spent by this Government to make up for which was not done in 2017-2018.

The Chief Minister also said that the dues of the ASHA workers were not cleared since 2014.

“For four years the incentive which were meant for the Asha workers were not cleared by the previous regime,” the Chief Minister said even as he pointed out that the dues almost amounted close to Rs 50 crore.

“It is this Government which has cleared around Rs 20 to Rs 22 crore of the dues for the past four years,” he said.

In the power sector, Conrad pointed out that close to Rs 570 crore was the due of the NEEPCO and almost 80 per cent of these was before 2018.

The Chief Minister said that if the previous Government had taken steps to pay this amount on a regular basis then problem in power supply would not have come up.

“Today we have a compounded amount over the failure of payment for many years has compiled,” he said.

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