‘Not duty of government to bail ADCs from financial crunch’: Meghalaya Deputy CM

SHILLONG

Meghalaya Deputy Minister, Prestone Tynsong has clarified that it is not the duty of the State Government to bail out the three Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) who are facing severe financial crunch.

“The ADCs are separate entities and it is not under the State Government. As per agreement, which was arrived long time back, the responsibility of the government was to release the outstanding dues of the share from royalties on the mineral sources to the three ADCs,” Tynsong told reporters here today.

Stating that the Government cannot provide any kind of financial assistance to help the ADCs in the payment of the salaries, he said that it is the job of the District councils to pay the salaries from its own resources.

The Deputy CM also informed that the Government had recently released an amount of ₹ 45 crore from which was sanctioned by the 15th Finance Commission under the special plan assistance.

Tynsong stated that out of the ₹ 45 crore which was released, the total amount of funds which was allocated to the three ADCs include KHADC (₹ 20.47 crore), GHADC (₹ 18.20 crore) and JHADC (₹ 6.82 crore).

Earlier, the District Council Affairs Minister, Lahkmen Rymbui had stated that the funds which were released are meant for various developmental activities as per plans and estimates proposed by the three ADCs.

(Edited by Christopher Gatphoh)