SHILLONG, Sept 7: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said the Farmer’s Collectivisation for Upscaling Production and Marketing Systems (FOCUS) is fully funded by the MDA government.

He was reacting to the allegation of opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) that the fund for implementation of the FOCUS was funded by the central government and not the MDA government.

“I don’t think there was any FOCUS program during the past and previous governments time and if anybody is trying to say that we are copying especially on the FOCUS program it is completely wrong,” Sangma told reporters.

He said FOCUS is a flagship program of the MDA government for forming producer groups and helping farmer groups and it is one of a kind that has never happened in the history of Meghalaya.

“This is the biggest form of a program that’s been taken up by the state government and the funding for this is purely by the state government… no funds that will come from Centre or anything like that,” he said.

“These are funds that have been mobilized by governmental Meghalaya whether it is from externally aided projects, whether it’s from our own resources or whether it’s from share of central taxes or from indirect taxes of the GST and other taxes we get, it could be any of these sources. But the point is the program has been started by this government would always ensure that the funding pattern is such that It is sustainable so you look at all different ways of setting up the funding programs,” he said adding “But that does not mean that this program is being funded by another government or by some of the agencies being funded by the government of Meghalaya and we are organizing the funds from different locations areas but that’s how governments work and there is no question of Copycat or whatever.”