State govt to take on Centre

SHILLONG, DEC 13: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today said the state government will take on the Government of India to ensure that it is not allowed to shrug off its responsibility.

“We have to take on the government of India and will not allow it to shrug off its responsibility,” Sangma said in his reply to a special motion moved by Paul Lyngdoh in the Assembly held here on Wednesday.

Lyngdoh while initiating discussion on the need to extend financial benefits to school teachers, casual employees, daily wage earners and others had raised the issue of SSA teachers not getting their salary on time.

He said a total of 12,481 teachers serving in SSA schools across the state are yet to receive their salaries for past eight months. This also came a day after a mass protest was staged by the aggrieved teachers in the state’s capital.

Admitting that the release of funds from the Centre government has been irregular, chief minister assured the House that the matter will be resolved at the government level.

“We will fight with the Government of India (on this),” he said while lamenting that the failure to implement the decisions taken at many meetings held between officials of the state government and ministry concerned.

He further alleged that there is also tendency on the part of the Government of India to withdraw as much as possible and slowly shift the burden on the states.

“There are also many ways in blocking funds into the state as sometimes they use machineries to inconvenience some of the states,” Sangma said while adding if there is inefficiency of any ministries, the blame goes to the state government.

According to him, the federal strength needs to be reaffirmed.

By Our Reporter