Meghalaya Govt Says Increase in the Outlay of Special Assistance to States Will Help it

Hailing the Union Budget, the Meghalaya government on Tuesday said the increase in the outlay of special assistance to states for capital investments will accelerate infrastructure development.

In a statement, the Finance Department of the state government said that in 2023-24, it has utilised more than Rs 1,300 crore under this scheme.

"Increase in the outlay of Special Assistance to States for Capital Investments which provides 50 years interest-free loans from Rs 1.3 lakh crore to Rs 1.5 lakh crore in this budget is a positive development for Meghalaya and will accelerate the infrastructure development in our State," it said.

The special focus on employment creation and skill development is a welcome move, it added.

It also said the nine priority areas of the Budget are aligned with Meghalaya's 'Mission 10', and will provide the required impetus to the growth of the state.

The state government said that it would leverage the opportunity to create world-class industrial parks with the Centre's ambitious plan for it.

Stating that all villages in Meghalaya are eligible for the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan, the state government said this programme will be leveraged to saturate all the schemes in the state.

Maintaining that setting up of 100 branches of the Indian Posts Payments Bank in the Northeast will improve banking coverage, the government said it will leave no stone unturned to ensure that Meghalaya gets a good number of these new branches.

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"Increased focus on agriculture, especially natural farming will help the State of Meghalaya as we are one of the first States to adopt natural farming in the Northeast. The increased allocations will provide better seeds and planting material to our farmers and help in increasing their income," the statement said.

The opposition Congress Vincent Pala, however, said the Budget was for the "rich and mighty".

"This budget is more of a lip service for the poor. There is an unspent amount of over Rs 7,000 crore in education, more than Rs 1,700 crore in healthcare, and unemployment is at an all-time high. There is no assurance to address this," he claimed.

Pala alleged nothing was allocated for the northeastern states in the Budget.

"There is zero mention of road projects and no packages for the power and agriculture sectors in the Northeast were announced," he said.