Shillong, March 7: The Opposition VPP has raised the issue of outside consultants getting lakhs of rupees and the locals who are supporting the former availing meagre amount.
During the Question Hour on Friday, Brightstarwell Marbaniang (VPP- Mawlai) wanted the government to train local youths for preparation of project reports and other services instead of the consultants.
Raising a supplementary question, Ardent Basaiawmoit (VPP) pointed out that while all the works are done by the local youths who are paid less, the remuneration of consultants is huge.
Raising a supplementary question, the Opposition Leader Mukul Sangma informed that some consultants are paid more than the officers of the state government.
Mukul also questioned Chief Minister Conrad Sangma stating that he is avoiding a ditect reply to the questions resulting in heated arguments between them.
According to the chief minister, he is explaining but it appears that the opposition does not want to listen to him.
The chief minister said the externally aided projects require the service of the consultants and the consultancy fee is part of the project.
He informed the House that while earlier the appointment of locals was only 3 per cent , it is around 30 per cent currently.
He also agreed to the suggestion of the opposition members that the local youths should be trained so that they can be employed as consultants.
The chief minister said there are 39 individual consultants and 69 consultancy firms.
He added that the source of funding is from the specified projects under which the consultants are hired.
The reply on total emoluments per year was that it could not be determined die to different periods of payment among the departments, scope of work and timeline of projects.
On the travelling expenses, the chief minister said this is inclusive of the project cost. However, there are cases that the state goverment bears the expenses for official work as required by the state government beyond the scope of activities as per the agreement.
