SHILLONG, APR 15: Dismissing claims that the Meghalaya State Planning Board (MSPB) serves to accommodate politicians, board member and UDP MLA from Mawsynram Olan Sing Suin said its sole mandate is to advise the government and ensure schemes are implemented correctly.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Suin underlined that the MSPB does not execute projects.

“The planning board is not implementing anything, we have no intervention but only thing is we can advise the government or to the department to see what new intervention we can do,” he clarified. “Consultants are engaged only by different implementing departments as the board is only an advisory committee.”

He said the board, chaired by AT Mondal, has held two meetings so far to assess the progress of government programmes.

“We have called a meeting twice and reviewed different departments on the programmes they are implementing, what are the shortcomings and problems faced while implementing such projects. We give suggestions to the government on what correction to be done,” Suin said.

Addressing the perception of the board as a platform for political rehabilitation, he said, “If the board is only to rehabilitate politicians otherwise it has no meaning. Of course, we are sitting and planning what steps to be taken to see if the state and different departments are implementing all the schemes in the right direction.”

He added that experts are also part of the planning process.

“We are involved, experts also are involved in the planning board,” he said.

On Shillong’s traffic situation, Suin pointed to visible improvement over the past few months, crediting new road infrastructure.

“We have discussed with the police and home department to decongest the traffic snarls in the whole Shillong city. Today, the traffic congestion has improved compared to the last 5-6 months,” he stated.

Citing examples, he said the new road to Anjalee petrol pump has removed a key bottleneck, while the nearly completed Upper Shillong-Umshyrpi stretch has further eased movement.

“You see this road going to Anjalee petrol pump, this new road has been opened and that has helped decongest the city and the bottleneck has been removed. You see from Upper Shillong to Umshyrpi, the road now is nearly complete – so we see that the traffic congestion has improved to a great extent,” Suin noted.

He also shared his commute experience: “Every time when I go from here to Upper Shillong it takes one hour and now it hardly takes 15-20 minutes. I see in this one month the difference in the traffic congestion compared to four – five months before.”