Imphal, July 05: After minute discussion, the Governor's address to the House, delivered on March 12 when the Assembly met for the first time this year, was unanimously passed by the Assembly today.

The address was passed after Industries Minister Th Debendra proposed the motion of thanks with the IFCD Minister N Mangi seconding it.

Joining in the discussion to effect certain amendments in the address of the Governor, Chief Minister O Ibobi clarified that the SPF Government is committed to bettering the acute financial crisis and the volatile law and order situation in the State.

To find remedies to the financial crunch the Government is working on a white paper which will study the financial aspect of the State for the last five years, added the Chief Minister.

On the militancy problem, the Chief Minister said that his Cabinet has already discussed the feasibility of inviting the rebels to the negotiating table and a team has already been constituted to send feelers to the underground organizations, he added.

A policy decision to end the militancy problem is already in place with the Government.

Ibobi also dismissed charges of financial indiscipline and added that the over draft of Rs 400 crores incurred by the State is the cumulative results of financial policies adopted by successive Governments in the past.

To bridge the huge gap between resource mobilization and expenses, the Power Department, Transport Dept, Revenue Dept and Excise have been asked to pull up and launch a resource mobilization drive, the Chief Minister informed the House.

He also asked the Opposition to offer suggestions for giving more teeth to the resource mobilization drive.

The Chief Minister further said that the State Government is burdened by excess employees and added that the Meghalaya Assembly has only 220 employees while here there are nearly 500 employees.

The previous Governments had also recruited about 2500 employees despite the ban on fresh recruitment, said the Chief Minister.

Stating that the Government has set certain targets to realize, the Chief Minister said that the Transport Department, Revenue Department and Power Department have been asked to give more teeth to their resource mobilization drive so as to achieve a target of Rs 150 crores.

He also informed the House that a sum of Rs 5.10 cores have been released from the Prime Minister's Non Lapsable Pool for electrifying 400 villages.

The Governor's address and the Common Minimum Programme of the SPF have clearly mentioned the need to check corruption, said the Chief Minister.

The Government has also given the prosecution sanction against officials indulging in corruption, he added.

BJP Legislature Wing leader, RK Dorendra said that the Governor's address had missed out a number of pressing matters and added that the SPF Government should take up appropriate measures to better the economy of the State and sincerely try to solve the militancy problem.