Shillong: The newly elected Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, led by chief minister Conrad Kongkal Sangma is planning to present a full budget for 2018-19 in the upcoming Assembly session.

This is the first budget session of the 10th Meghalaya Assembly, which was constituted on March 7.

A cabinet meeting held here on Monday evening discussed the draft speech of the governor to be delivered on the inaugural day of the budget session and looked at the possibility of presenting the full budget, instead of a vote-on-account that will facilitate different departments to defray certain charges only for the first quarter of the fiscal year from April to June.

Asked if his government would table a vote-on-account, Conrad said, "We would like to prepare the budget for the whole year as we cannot have a three-month budget and prepare another nine-month budget. We will decide whether to go for a three-month vote-on-account or full budget. But we are in favour of going for a full-fledged budget so that the work can start and we can move immediately."

On the number of working days proposed for the budget session, the chief minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, said the business advisory of the Assembly will take a call on the dates and days.

"We are trying to ensure that sufficient time is given for the members to consider both private members' and government business," he said.

Responding to a query on the protection of wildlife in the state, as requested by Union minister Maneka Gandhi, Conrad said, "Wildlife is a matter of concern for us and our government is committed to ensure it is protected in our state. We would like to preserve and protect it." Conrad said he is yet to read the letter written by Maneka on the issue.

"We will sit with the respective departments and figure out on how to move forward," he said.

In her letter, Maneka urged the Meghalaya chief minister to end rampant poaching in the state allegedly pushing some endangered species to the brink of extinction.

Citing an example of hoolock gibbon species in particular, the Union minister said, they were highly endangered in Meghalaya because of unchecked poaching.