MEGHALAYA LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

RE-ASSEMBLED BUDGET SESSION, 2003

BULLETIN NO. 7

( MONDAY, 30^th JUNE, 2003 )

                    The House met at 10 a.m. with Hon'ble Speaker in the Chair. The day was devoted for the transaction of Private Members' Business.

1.    QUESTIONS :

                    Starred questions Nos.119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126 and 127 with Supplementaries, Nos.128 to 130 without Supplementary were disposed of.

2.    ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE CHAIR :

                    The Speaker apprised the House that he has received a notice of adjournment motion tabled by Shri Edmund K. Sangma under Rule 56 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. He read out the text of the motion for the benefit of the House.
                    Making his observation on the subject, the Speaker observed that this notice did not mention  the name of the arrested person as well as the nature of the occurrence which necessitated urgent public importance and as such, under Sub-rule 4 of Rule 57 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, he ruled it out.
                    However, after allowing the mover to make his brief submission, he requested the mover to indicate his order of preference either to discuss on the adjournment motion or Motion No.5 but since the mover insisted that he would like to discuss both, the Chair then asked the mover to take the leave of the House to move his adjournment motion after which, the motion was put to vote. The question was that those who are in favour of the motion should rise on their feet and since only one Member rose on his feet, the motion was lost and the Adjournment motion fell through.
                    ( At this juncture all the Opposition Members staged  a walk out of the House ).

3.    MOTIONS :

                    Shri Cyprian R. Sangma, did not move Motion No.1.
                    Shri Ardhendu Chaudhuri, moved motion No.2.
                   " This  House do not discuss the need to revamp the functioning of the Health and Family Welfare Department in providing basic health care facilities in PHCs, CHCs and Hospitals in the State ".
                    Moving his motion, the hon. Member from Mawprem highlighted on the condition of the Shillong Civil hospital, the T. B. hospital and other private hospitals in the past and compared them as they are today. The mover stated that during the past decades, the condition of these hospitals have deteriorated to a great extend as most of the specialised posting had concentrated only in the Civil Hospital and Ganesh Das hospital. He lamented on the plight of the Cobalt Therapy unit of the Shillong Civil hospital which was non functional for so many years and suggested for immediate utilisation of this machine to counter with increasing no. of Cancer patients. The mover expressed his sadness at the non-functioning of the I.C.U. in the Civil hospital at Shillong and urged upon the replacement of the obsolete equipment attached to this unit. He also mentioned that there are Primary Health Centres which have three or four doctors and there are P.H.Cs which do not have a single doctor and called for a uniform policy of the concerned department in this regard. He cited an instances of the 13 high powered ex-ray machines procured in 2001-02 against the total value of 1.82 crores and out of the total of 13 only one is functional whereas 12 could not be made functional owing to inadequate power supply and non availability of radiographer and radiologist. He asked what prompted the department to purchase without infrastructure resulting thereby in a sheer wastage of public money and called for an enquiry by the department.
                    Shri C.R. Sangma, Shri H. S. Lyngdoh and Shri M. Rava, participated.
                   In the reply to the discussion on the points raised by the mover and the other Members who participated, Shri B. G. Momin, Minister incharge Health and Family Welfare appraised that the Government is aware to these problems faced by the people in  getting treatment and other facilities in the hospitals and the P.H.Cs or C.H.Cs in the State and assured that their points have been noted by the concerned department for implementation in the near future. He gave detailed figures of statistics on the no. of hospitals, C.H.Cs, Sub-centres etc. including the no. of beds and availability of man power in order to achieve the goal of health for all  by the end of the 10th Five Year plan period. The minister incharge replied to the other clarifications called for by the hon. Members who have taken part.
                 Supplementary the reply of the Minister incharge Health and Family Welfare, Shri D. D. Lapang, Chief Minister informed that the State Government is very seriously considering to upgrade the Civil hospital into a Meghalaya State Hospital equipped with complete clinical and diagnostic centres and that because of shortage of man power, Government will take step to appoint people on contract basis for the benefit of the people. 
                  Shri A. L. Hek, moved Motion No.3.
                " This House do now discuss the traffic congestion in Shillong, particularly in Municipal areas ".
                  The hon. mover of the motion was critical of the acute traffic congestion in Shillong city and urged for urgent measures to widen the roads by the P.W.D., construction of many parking zones in the outskirts including terminals at vulnerable points in order to ease traffic congestion. The hon. Member suggested shifted of office establishment including the new Assembly building to a new site in the land already acquired by the Government for the satellite township.
                  Shri Ardhendu Chaudhuri and Shri H. S. Lyngdoh took part.
                  Replying to the points raised by the mover and other participants, Shri R. G. Lyngdoh, Minister incharge Home (Police) stated that the Government is alive to the problems and assured that the points have been noted of by the concerned department. The Minister incharge informed that so far eleven parking lots have been constructed in and around Shillong and that three more are under construction by the Urban Development Department as of now, in order to ease traffic congestion in Shillong. As regards parking zones, he replied that a proposal has been mooted by the department to construct a terminal at Mawblei and some other places. The Minister incharge further replied to the other points raised by the participants and stated that a Committee under the Chairmanship of the Additional D.G.P. has been constituted to enforce measures to ease traffic congestion and that any suggestion on how to control and regularise traffic in Shillong is welcomed in this regard.
                   Shri Brening A. Sangma, moved Motion No.4.
                " This House do now discuss about the failure of the Irrigation for non functional of many Irrigation Projects in the State due to which huge amount of public fund has been wasted and the general farmers are deprived of the benefit of the irrigation facilities to cultivate high yielding varieties of rice in the State ".
                  Reiterating the need to construct more irrigation projects in the State to increase production by the farmers, the mover urged the Government to come up with a definite policy and proper planning to make all the projects functional and to complete all incompleted irrigation projects. Citing the example of two abandoned projects in his constituency, he called for the reason of the delay of the completion of one Medium Irrigation Project at Chibinam in Garo Hills. The mover of the motion requested the Minister incharge to come up with detail reply on the no. of functioning and non-functional irrigation projects, the number of  completed and incompleted projects and the no. of projects not started till now.
                  Shri P.T. Sawkmie, Minister incharge Irrigation gave a detailed reply to the points raised by the mover and the attributed the reason in the delay of the construction of many irrigation projects to the land problem. He mentioned of the non-fulfillment of the agreement by the concerned individuals at the time of giving their land free of cost at the initial stage. He also cited instances of non completion of the allotted works by the contractors resulting thereby in prices escalation for the projects.
                 However, he assured that the concerned department will look into to see that the Construction is expedited as soon as possible so that all these projects become functional for the benefit of the farmers. As regards the Medium Irrigation Project at Chibinam, the Minister incharge informed that the matter is under active consideration of the Government.
                            Shri Edmund K. Sangma, moved motion No.5.
                           "This House do now discuss the Politician-militant nexus in the State vis-a-vis Government's stand on the matter".
                             Discussing at length on the motion, the hon. mover called for a categorical definition from the Government on the terms "politicians nexus with militants".
                             Making his own interpretation in this regard the mover recalled the remarks made by Shri C.R. Marak, former Member and the statement made by Shri S. C. Marak, former leader in this august House and also by Shri Salman Kaushik who happened to be a Congress leader who came all the way to Tura from Delhi has said that the victory of the Nationalist Congress was due to man power and nexus between politicians  and the militants.
                              Terming the statement as unfounded, baseless, the mover asserted that such statement by the matured and responsible leaders was uncalled for and suggested for measures to sort out the problems to remove the misunderstanding and confusion hankering in the minds of elected representatives.
                               Referring to the arrest of Shri Adolf Lu. R. Hitler Marak. former Member of this House, the mover felt that his arrest was nothing but a sheer political vindictiveness on the part of the Government to victimise him and other people involved while they were vigorously endeavouring to bring the militants over-ground to get their demands fulfilled by the Government. He called for the list of politicians having links with militants from the Minister incharge so as to clear the doubt from their minds.
                               Since the time was  up, his deliberations remained inconclusive to be continued on the next day.

4.    ADJOURNMENT :

                                The House rose at 2 p.m. and stood adjourned till 10 a. m. on Tuesday, the 1st July, 2003.