Shillong, Oct. 14: The Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has decided to refrain from foreign tours sponsored by the Meghalaya Assembly in view of the poor financial position of the state.

Staggering under heavy financial burden, the government has not been able to pay salary arrears to its employees and deficit schoolteachers on time. The 60 legislators are also yet to get the full amount under the MLA scheme — meant for development in their constituencies — for 2009-10 and 2010-11.

NCP’s John Manner Marak, who is the chairman of the library committee of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, today wrote to Speaker Charles Pyngrope, apprising him of the party legislators’ inability to attend the scheduled tours to the parliaments in Singapore and Malaysia in the first and second week of November.

In another letter addressed to the Speaker, the chairman of the public accounts committee of the House, Masonsing M. Sangma, of the NCP said the party’s legislators would not like to undertake trips to the UK and Canada which has also been proposed for the first and second week of November.

“The NCP high command took a conscientious decision to ask its MLAs to refrain from making foreign tours scheduled by the public accounts committee and the library committee of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly which are both being chaired by NCP legislators,” NCP spokesperson James Sangma said in a statement today.

The NCP feels that with this token gesture, it will be able to contribute in reducing the state’s financial burden.

Sangma said as Meghalaya was reeling under a financial crunch — be it the salary arrears of government employees, of deficit schoolteachers, of the employees of Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council and Garo Hills Autonomous District Council or the MLA schemes — there should be a check on the foreign tours of legislators.

“The NCP is very concerned about the financial crunch being faced by the state despite the fact that the chief minister (Mukul Sangma) had made countless trips to New Delhi but has always returned with an empty bowl. These trips have turned out to be self-defeating and wasteful expenditure on his part,” he added.

The NCP leader said considering the present fiscal scenario, the chief minister, who is holding the portfolio of finance, has proven himself to be a poor financial manager.

“The NCP feels that the chief minister, who seems to be overburdened and clueless about how to manage the finances, should hand over the ministry to one of his colleagues who we believe will do justice to the finance department,” Sangma added.