The Meghalaya government today approved a proposal to augment the corpus contingency fund from Rs 205 crore to Rs 455 crore to meet the increasing expenses incurred by the state government.
This is the second time in a year that the fund was hiked in view of the tight budgetary allocations from the Centre and to meet the payment of Rs 200 crore to over five lakh job card holders by month end.
"We have approved the proposal for temporary augmentation of the corpus from Rs 205 crore to Rs 455 crore," Chief Minister Mukul Sangma told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
He said over Rs 200 crore would be required for clearing the pending wages of around five lakh job card holders under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Schemes (MNREGS).
"We are trying to ensure that wages for all job card holders under the scheme are regularly released, which is the endeavour of the government for the past one year," he said.
The cabinet approval of the corpus fund was necessitated and this would be replaced with a regular act to have augmentation on a permanent basis unlike in previous years where an ordinance had to be passed.
The cabinet has also approved wounding up of a loss making government-owned company, the Meghalaya Bamboo Chips Ltd, by providing Voluntary Retirement Scheme to its 15 employees.
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