Meghalaya Govt refutes Khasi students' body's charges

SHILLONG, March 6: The Meghalaya Government has ruled out the allegation made by Khasi Students' Union (KSU) that the Chief Minister, his ministerial colleagues and the IAS officers in the State, indulged in wasteful expenditure to the tune of about Rs six core in just 16 months, reports UNI. Clarifying the government position, an official release yesterday said that all these expenses for the relevant period from April 1, 1999 to August 15, 2000, were made on facilities like salary, medical treatment, TA, telephone bills and so on and so forth to which ministers and bureaucrats were entitled. The Government further said that all the facilities were not new but had been continuing for many years. The KSU had filed an FIR with the police seeking criminal proceedings against the Ministers and IAS officers for misusing public money at a time when Meghalaya was suffering from acute financial crunch.