Govt bats for change in MLAs pension

Staff Reporter

Shillong, Sept 15: The Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya (Member’s Pension) (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which seeks to reduce the qualifying years of 2 years and 6 months for an MLA to be eligible to receive a pension, was tabled in the first day of the Assembly’s autumn session held today.

Stating the object and reasons after introducing the Bill, Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Parliamentary Affairs Prestone Tynsong said that the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly has proposed to reduce the qualifying years of 2 years and 6 months as contained in proviso to section 3 (l) of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly (Member’s Pension) Act, 1977.

He said that the existing provision in section 3 of the said Act puts a cap of 2 years and 6 months for an MLA to be eligible to receive a pension. In view of this law, members who have served as an MLA for less than this period were not eligible to receive a pension.

Tynsong also said there are few persons who were members of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly who have fallen short of 2 years and 6 months as required in section proviso to section 3 (l) of the said Act and thus ineligible to receive a pension.

“To enable these persons to be eligible to receive a pension, the instant amendment is being placed. Therefore the proposal to amend section 3 of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly (Member’s Pension) Act, 1977 by inserting a new proviso and by giving it retrospective effect is being proposed in the amendment. Hence, this Bill,” he said.

In the financial memorandum, Assembly’s Commissioner & Secretary Andrew Simons said that the additional expenditures will be involved from the consolidated fund of the State while implementing this amendment provision.

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Conrad inspects upgrade of JN stadium

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday inspected the ongoing renovation, up-gradation and expansion of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Polo in Shillong.

The renovated stadium would include a football ground with natural grass turf and also a state-of-the-art facility for hosting track and field events.

Laying emphasis on the quality of the construction, the Chief Minister informed that the highest quality standards are being maintained and once ready will be fit to host international sporting events.

“The entire arrangements and the way the work is going on, we are going to meet the FIFA standards and this particular stadium and the football field will be at par to host any international games in the future”, he said.

“Apart from this, the stadium will have full facilities for athletics and the quality that is being maintained here for the track and field is also top of the line”, he added.

The Chief Minister the renovated stadium will have a seating capacity of close to 30,000 and will be completed by the month of December this year.

Adjacent to the Football Stadium, a multipurpose indoor stadium is also being constructed.

The Chief Minister informed that it will be the largest multipurpose indoor stadium in the Northeastern region. The indoor stadium will have facilities for different disciplines such as basketball, squash, badminton, table tennis, volleyball, etc.

Expressing his happiness at the progress of the work, the Chief Minister was optimistic that once the state-of-the-art facilities are completed it will provide an opportunity for the youth of the State to excel in the respective field and sporting disciplines.

During his visit, the Chief Minister also inspected the football field located at the first ground Polo. Necessary upgrade and expansion are being carried out to improve the ground with the laying of an artificial turf and the construction of new stands.

Stating that the youth of the State are passionate about football, the Chief Minister said that the Government is in the process to identify local practice grounds across the State and take steps to upgrade and improve the selected grounds for the benefit of football lovers.

“The Government has decided that we are going to take up different locality fields and football grounds in all parts of the State where our youth normally play football and in collaboration with the community and the local leaders we would want to upgrade these grounds with better facilities”.

“We are already surveying Shillong city and we have identified five locations where we can potentially lay these astro turfs. With this intervention we are expecting that a large number of astro turf football grounds will come up, where our youth can practise, have matches. That will be one of the steps towards ensuring that we are able to bring out the talent and give the opportunity for the youth who are passionate about football”, he said.

The ongoing construction of an Integrated Hospitality and Sports Complex at JN Stadium is at a cost of 125 crore, while the upgrade of JN Sports Complex Phase I is at a cost of 34.75 crore, while the upgrade of Phase II is 18.2 crore and the upgrade of SSA ground at 14.81 crore.

The integrated sports complex will comprise of 700-seater Multi Sports Hall, Convention Hall that can house 12 badminton courts, an independent Banquet hall with a dedicated kitchen facility, 200 seater Basketball or Futsal Indoor Sports Hall, Indoor Sports Hall for Squash (2 Nos.) and Table tennis (10 Nos.), 10 M and 25 M Shooting range.