Shillong, May 28: Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Wednesday said the Meghalaya government has put all new foreign travel proposals on hold and cancelled his own overseas visits following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent call for austerity measures.
Addressing concerns over official foreign visits continuing despite the Prime Minister’s announcement, Sangma clarified that only those programmes which had received political and financial clearance before the directive were allowed to proceed. “The programmes that had political as well as financial clearance before the Prime Minister’s announcement went ahead, because such trips take three to four months, sometimes six months to prepare,” the Chief Minister told reporters.
He explained that the delegations currently abroad had completed all formalities well in advance and were already part of the approved pipeline. “These were already in the pipeline. The process was done, bookings were made, expenditures were incurred, and political clearance was given by the Centre also,” Sangma said.
However, he stressed that no fresh proposals for foreign visits have been approved since the Prime Minister’s announcement. “Post Prime Minister’s announcement, any new proposals for trips outside are not being entertained,” he stated.
Sangma said he had personally decided to suspend all his overseas travel plans in line with the Centre’s direction, even before receiving any formal notification. “I had personally put on hold every single trip outside. I am very clear that we had to go as per the Prime Minister’s direction as this is in the larger interest of the nation,” he said. “I have stopped all foreign trips post Prime Minister’s announcement,” he added.
The Chief Minister reiterated that only previously approved trips were allowed to continue because the process had already been finalized. “The ones before that have been cleared, so those obviously went through. But after his announcement, any new proposal for any kind of a foreign trip has been put on hold,” he said.
Explaining the extensive preparations involved in such visits, Sangma said many of the earlier trips had been planned months before the Prime Minister’s directive. “It had been prepared for the last three months, five months before the Prime Minister’s announcement. Bookings were made, political clearance was taken from the Government of India, and necessary arrangements with the concerned governments were made,” he said.
The Chief Minister further revealed that around seven to eight fresh proposals for foreign trips have already been kept pending following the austerity call. “After he gave the announcement and asked the states not to send delegations, we have not cleared anyone. I have received close to about 7-8 new proposals and all of them have been put on hold,” Sangma said.
