Shillong, Mar 8: Health Minister James K Sangma on Tuesday informed the Assembly that the state government owes over Rs. 85.50 crore under the National Health Mission (NHM) to suppliers who supported the government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have already moved for an SD (supplementary demand) and also along with that certain portion of it is being drawn from the contingency funds and hopefully by April, we will be able to release all these payments as we don’t want to keep any liabilities,” Sangma said.
He, however, said there are no pending bills till date under the Directorate of Health Services (MI).
Sangma informed that Rs 156.96 crore under NHM and Rs 82.75 crore under DHS (MI) was spent during the Covid-19 pandemic during the financial year of 2020-2021 and Rs 302.08 crore under NHM and Rs 113.48 crore under DHS (MI) during 2021-2022.
On the financial support from the Centre, the health minister said a total of Rs. 6 crore was received under DHS(MI), while under NHM, Rs 15.87 crore was received in 2020-21 and Rs 91.94 crore in 2021-22.