Two companies based out of New Delhi and Manipur won contracts to construct Ekalavya Model Residential Schools in Meghalaya because the state’s own agencies were stymied by the Covid-19 pandemic, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said in the Assembly today.
Rymbui said this during Question Hour in the ongoing budget session. The two outside companies are Water and Power Consultancy Services and Manipur Industrial Development Corporation. Both are public sector undertakings.
When asked by Mawsynram MLA Himalaya Shangpliang why the state’s own companies and government departments were not involved in the construction of the schools, the minister replied that the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the sanctioning body and the National Education Society for Tribal Students the implementing agency.
“When the expression of interest was called for, the Education Department had asked the PWD (Public Works Department), MGCC (Meghalaya Government Construction Corporation) and others to participate but, due to the pandemic, they could not and agencies from outside the state participated,” Rymbui said.
Why Meghalaya bodies were hampered when those from New Delhi and Manipur were not is a question that the public will be asking.
