Meghalaya will defer a part of the salaries of cabinet ministers and bureaucrats.
The Meghalaya government has decided to defer a part of the salaries of cabinet ministers, bureaucrats, and some other sections of government employees as measure to cut its expenditure amid the Coronavirus crisis.
Half of the salaries of the Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues and all ranks of IAS, IPS and IFS will get deferred, Chief Secretary M S Rao said in a notification issued on Tuesday.
A part of the gross salaries of All India Services officers on deputation to the state will also be deferred, he added.
The Chief Secretary said that the lockdown is likely to cause a slowdown in the national and state economy.
It was, therefore, necessary to put in place expenditure control and cash management system so that resources are available for effective management of the COVID-19 situation, he said.
The measures have also been taken with regard to the salaries for April, which will be paid in May, and May, which will be paid in June, Mr Rao said.
There will be a 35 per cent deduction in the gross salaries of Group A and B officers, and 25 per cent in respect of Group C staff of all departments except the officers and staff of the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the Group C employees of the departments of Home (Police) and Home (Civil Defence and Home Guards).
There will be no deduction in the salaries of Group D employees and payment of pensions. Meghalaya has reported 12 cases of COVID-19 so far and of them, one person has died.
"Corona Bonds and Division Of Zones"
A special panel formed by the state government has suggested the idea of issuing 'Corona bonds' to raise money from the public to fight against Covid-19 in Meghalaya.
Led by former chief minister DD Lapang, the committee also suggested strengthening the Covid-19 Task Force headed by health commissioner P Sampath Kumar by including experts like scientists, doctors, economists, sociologists, legal experts, representatives of autonomous district councils and other fields.
It suggested that distribution of resources like personal protective equipment kits, sanitisers, medicines is done centrally with the red and orange zones getting priorities.
The committee also suggested that another monitoring/oversight group should be set up to ensure proper implementation of guidelines, social distancing, management of isolation and treatment centers, the supply of PPEs, medicines, and their quality.
Following the model of successful states like Goa and others, the committee suggested that the state should be divided into red, orange, and green zones to properly tackle the infection rate and to identify contact infection for proper testing.
On agriculture, it suggested that directions should be given to the Meghalaya Rural Bank and Meghalaya Cooperative Apex Bank to start sanctioning soft agricultural loans, and to explore the possibility of waiving loans of farmers facing acute distress.
A minimum support price should also be announced, it said.
Asking the government to cut down on non-essential spending, the committee suggested the use of District Mineral Funds for fighting against the pandemic as well as the diversion of funds from the corpus meant for the National Games 2022.