Shillong: The Meghalaya government had spent more than Rs. 650 crore in tackling the situation arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic in the financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, Health and Family Welfare Minister, James Sangma informed the Assembly on Tuesday.
He said an amount of Rs. 156.96 crore under National Health Mission (NHM) and Rs 82.75 crore under DHS (MI) was spent during the Covid-19 pandemic during the financial year of 2020-2021 and Rs 302.08 crore under NHM and Rs 113.48 crore under DHS (MI) during 2021-2022.
Sangma said the State Health department has received a total of Rs. 6 crore from the central government, while Rs 15.87 crore was received in 2020-21 and Rs 91.94 crore in 2021-22 under NHM.
Though there are no pending bills for payment to suppliers under the Directorate of Health Services (MI), Sangma however said an amount of over Rs. 85 crore is pending under NHM.
Sangma, who was replying to queries raised by suspended Congress legislator Process T. Sawkmie, informed that the department has already moved for an supplementary demand along with that certain portion of it is being drawn from the contingency funds.
“Hopefully by April, we will be able to release all these payments as we don’t want to keep any liabilities,” Sangma said.
