Syiem slams Govt

SHILLONG, MAR 22: Suspended Congress legislator from Mawsynram Pynshngain N Syiem today warned the state government not to force the chief of the district council to move court for non-releasing of royalty share.

Raising a supplementary in the Assembly here, Syiem, who is also the KHADC chief, lambasted the government’s failure to release the pending royalty share to the tune of Rs 136 crore during 2014-15 and 2015-16 to the KHADC.

“If this is the way, I request the minister not to push the poor CEM to approach the judiciary,” he said.

Referring to the district budget, he said out of Rs 102 crore collected as royalty, only Rs 8 crore was paid and Rs 94 crore was pending during 2014-15 while only Rs 5 crore was paid out of the actual collection of Rs 57 crore during 2015-16.

Expressing concern over the lack of clarity on the issue, Syiem also said that the amount to be paid to the district councils should be indicated at the end of every financial year even as he reiterated that present state budget to be “thoughtless”.

In his reply, Minister in-charge District Council Affairs (DCA) Prestone Tynsong said that if the member is not satisfied with the reply nobody will stop him from going to the judiciary.

However maintaining that there is no step-motherly treatment by state government to the district councils, Tynsong informed that when reconciliation statement from Accounts General is completed, the process for releasing the entitlements will be taken up immediately.

During the course of discussion, there was also a bit of confusion on the amount mentioned in the reply to starred question in which Syiem accused the minister of coming to the House unprepared.

Later the minister asked Syiem to withdraw his allegation after he had clarified that the amount to the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) was already cleared.

Earlier, the DCA Minister informed that the pending share to the two Autonomous District Councils – KHADC and JHADC on major minerals was Rs 57 crore and nil on minor minerals.

Out of this, Rs 36.42 crore was pending to be paid to the KHADC and Rs 20.57 crore to JHADC, while Rs 64.97 crore to the GHADC has been cleared.