SPV independence demanded

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, APR 13: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) Lawbah Border Area Circle today demanded the state government not to allow its servants especially those intending to be politicians from “misusing” the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

“We want the SPV to be an independent body and to achieve this, we have demanded that no head of departments should be part of the board of directors,” KSU-LBAC president Truelywell Lyngdoh told reporters here on Thursday.

He alleged that this in view of the fact that as per information of the Union there are government officials (head of departments) who are attempting to politicize the schemes implemented under the SPV for their own political gain.

“Some of such officials, who are intending to fight elections, have gone to the people and assured to extend schemes from the SPV,” Lyngdoh said while claiming that the union will expose their names when the right time comes.

“We cannot allow such scope of politicizing and misusing of the funds as the SPV is meant for providing development to the people of the area,” he said.

It may be mentioned here that the SPVC was constituted as per the ruling of the Supreme Court for implementing various developmental schemes in the areas falling within the Lafarge mining area in Nongtrai village, East Khasi Hills District.

The Lafarge mining area covers elakas/villages within a perimeter distance of 50 kilometers.

At present, the Lafarge Umiam Mining Pvt Ltd, is exporting 2 million tonnes of limestone to its cement factory at Chattak in Bangladesh through a 17 km-long cross-border conveyor belt.

The company is paying Rs 90 per metric ton for undertaking various developmental activities in the area. It is paying around Rs 18 crore annually to the SPV.

He informed that various grievances have also been highlighted in a memorandum to the state chief secretary, KS Kropha, who is also heading the Special Purpose Vehicle Committee (SPVC) as the Chairman, for his intervention.

“We have also expressed our strong opposition on the manner in which the developmental schemes are being channelized through the different government departments for implementation,” Lyngdoh said.

Stating that this only allows room for “political interferences”, he also alleged that the headmen of the different villages who are heading the Local Project Implementation Committees (LPICs) have been sidelined in the decision making process for implementing the projects.

“We therefore demanded that the voice of the traditional headmen should be taken into consideration because they know what is their respective area required as development,” Lyngdoh said.

Also alleging that the SPV have given too much importance on road connectivity, the KSU-LBAC president said, “But we do not say that we don’t need roads but the SPV should also concentrate on other developments such as education, health and agriculture as these are also equally important for the people of the area.”

He said the delegation had also proposed the need to set up vocational training institute in the area for skill development in order to generate more employment to the people of the area.

Asked, Lyngdoh said that the chief secretary has assured the delegation to examine and accordingly address the various concerns expressed by them on the functioning of the SPV.