Meghalaya govt accepts FRBM Act amendment, allows Rs 400 cr borrowing boost

The Meghalaya cabinet on Thursday approved the amendment to a law, which will enable the state to increase borrowings by up to Rs 400 crore this year.

After chairing the cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the council of ministers green-lighted the amendment to the Meghalaya Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2006.

"The Act was also amended last year as per GoI's (Government of India) permission to allow states to increase the budget borrowings based on reforms taken by states on an annual basis.

"Last year based on the reforms taken by various departments, our borrowing limit was increased by 4 per cent and for this year, based on the power reforms there will be 0.5 per cent increase in the budget borrowing," Sangma said on X, formerly Twitter.

 

It would allow the government to increase borrowings by up to Rs 400 crore, the chief minister said,

The cabinet also approved the proposal for the "adaptation of NCERT textbooks with modifications in certain subjects" to be carried out by the Meghalaya Board of School Education.

"This will allow the adaptation of the NCERT textbooks with necessary modifications from Class I to X. For schools teaching in local/vernacular language (from Class I to V), the necessary changes in language will be done for the adaptation to take place. The process for Phase 1 will start in the next academic year," the chief minister said.

He also said the government is "deeply concerned" about the education system in the state, and the proposal was made after consultation and research with many stakeholders in the sector.

"We have concluded that most of the MBOSE textbooks especially for mathematics, science and english are not up to the national standards," he stated.

This adaptation aims at improving the overall quality of textbooks, learning outcomes and quality of content, which also will lead to a reduction in the number of textbooks, he said. "We will also ensure the curriculum is adapted to the national curriculum with adaptation to local content based on our culture and history," the chief minister added.

The council of ministers also approved a proposal to institute a recruitment board for the education department to complete the filling up of all the vacancies within 6 months, Sangma said.

"We are hopeful that all vacancies in the department will be filled up within 3-6 months," he said.

The chief minister also said that the Labour Department has been renamed and its activities have been broadened to include skill. The department has been renamed as labour, employment and skill development, he added.