Meghalaya: Over 115 crore spent to tackle COVID-19

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 21, 2020

The state government has spent over Rs 115 crore in dealing with the prevailing situation due to COVID-19.

“A total of Rs 69.25 crore is being spent from the state resources under various relief measures related to COVID-19. Combined with the Rs 45.85 crore spent on health expenditure, the total expenditure made by the State due to COVID-19 comes to Rs 115.10 Crore,” Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said while replying to a call attention moved by Congress MLA from Mawlai PT Sawkmie in the Assembly on Thursday.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented economic and social disruption impacting health, livelihoods and overall well-being of individuals and communities across the globe. 

The Government of India and the State Government have taken a number of steps towards containing the spread of COVID-19 since mid-March. 

The entire state machinery has been working tirelessly over the last two months to deal with the various challenges related to the pandemic, he said. 

The chief minister said the government has put in place a three-pronged strategy to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We are prioritising the improvement of health infrastructure, increasing the use of technology and building the capacity of communities to deal with the situation,” he said.

Stating that strengthening the health infrastructure is the core first priority of his government, the chief minister said a number of investments were made in the health sector over the last two months.  

“Post the outbreak of the global pandemic, an amount of Rs 57.98 crore has been sanctioned by the State government to the Health and Family Welfare Department. Of this Rs 45.85 crore is from State’s resources and Rs 12.13 crore is Central Resources. This investment has helped improve the health infrastructure significantly,” he said.

Sangma said the lockdown imposed to contain COVID-19 has adversely affected the livelihood, food security and income of the various sections of the society including construction workers, both registered and unregistered, farmers, entrepreneurs, citizens of the State stranded outside the State and the rural and urban poor. 

In addition to implementing the various relief measures of the Government of India under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, he said the state government, through its own resources, has taken up several relief measures. 

He said the state government is spending Rs 38.11 crore on relief measures to construction workers and unregistered workers. 

An amount of Rs 3,000 was credited to the bank accounts of 24,516 numbers of registered building and construction workers. 

Further, an amount of Rs 2,100 is being credited to the bank accounts of 1,81,491 unregistered workers under the Chief Minister’s Relief Against Wage Loss Scheme, he added. 

On relief to stranded citizens, the CM said an amount of Rs 3,000 has been credited to the bank accounts of 9,224 individuals costing Rs 2.77 Crore. 

He also added that additionally provision Kits providing 2-weeks rations and other essentials to individuals and households under quarantine have been supplied to about 10,000 households in the State costing approximately Rs 2 Crore. 

Meanwhile, the CM informed that an amount of Rs 26.38 Crore has been provided to the Food and Civil Supplies Department for procurement and supply of 58,639 quintals of food grains under the open market sale scheme.