Did not issue passes to dogs, cats : Marak

SHILLONG, NOV 26: Meghalaya Secretariat Administration Department-SAD- minister Deborah Marak told the assembly on Wednesday that she did not issued passes to dogs or cats to enter the Meghalaya secretariat.

Marak told the assembly “I have not issued passes to dogs or cats.”

Marak made this comment in the course of her reply to a a cut motion moved by NPP legislator James K Sangma against a supplementary demand for  SAD department.

Sangma during his cut motion had pointed about bad press that the Access Control System (ACS) got when certain photographs were published in newspapers alleging that dog excreta was lying in the secretariat’s corridor  and also the computers which was stolen from a parliamentary secretary’s office.

Stating that a whopping Rs 68.30 lakh was put up as an additional expenditure for improving the ACS, Sangma wondered, “Someone is kidding me, when we cannot even prevented dogs from dirtying the secretariat.” He said the additional expenditure is wasteful expenditure when the CCTVs have already been installed in the secretariat.

Marak, however, defended the decision for asking for supplementary demand saying, “The news about dog entering into the secretariat is not correct and we cannot take that everything that is reported in media as truth. But I’ve checked it is not dog’s excreta… may be it is the cat. They (dogs/cats) must have jumped and entered…”

Sangma had also questioned the need behind installation of more CCTVs that will cost an additional Rs 24.73 lakh when they are already installed in secretariat besides the proposed expenditure on the ACS.

Marak replied by saying as per the decision of the state government, the ACS introduced in July 2012 at a cost of Rs 1.80 crore has been successful implemented in the eight gates of the secretariat and Raitong building. She informed that 12 private security guards were also engaged to assist the police in monitoring the entry and exit of people to and from the secretariat.

Marak buttressed her argument in support of the supplementary by saying that the computer that was reportedly stolen from parliamentary secretary’s room was recovered with the help of CCTV footage.  She said, “It is because of the CCTVs, we could trace the computer.”

Marak also qualified the demand by claiming that with the installation of the Attendance Monitoring System (AMS), the attendance of the government employees has improved significantly.-By Our Reporter