Demand for winter capital will overburden State finance: KHNAM

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 17, 2023

KHNAM working president Thomas Passah on Monday said the demand of the ACHIK to have Tura as a winter capital is without substantial justification at all neither is Garo hills too far from Shillong nor there is any other obstacles for people to travel from Tura to Shillong.

“If the demand is made in order to spread economic growth and helps bring about development then we will need to have more capitals in the State especially at those areas and District which are lacking in development be it West Khasi Hills, Jaintia hills or Ribhoi District etc,” Passah said in a statement.

“The fact is that the major share of development has been channelised to Garo Hills for the past decades, if we start to list down the amount of funds from various departments allocated to Garo hills, we will see that Tura  is the least deserving to be named as a winter capital based on development,” he added.

Passah said In India only Himachal Pradesh has two capitals namely Shimla and Dharamshala but the reason for this is that the snow and roadblocks in harsh winters make it difficult to reach Shimla adding “whereas in the case of Meghalaya there is no such reason to have two capitals.”

He said Shillong remained the only capital of undivided Assam until the creation of the new state of Meghalaya on 21 January 1972, when Shillong became the capital of Meghalaya and this has to be maintained as the only Capital.

“Therefore such demands do not deserve attention, moreover such demands will overburden the State finance with unwanted additional expenditure,” he added.