Shillong, Sep 16 (PTI) Meghalaya"s principal opposition party, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Friday slammed the state government for failing to provide information on the total number of unfilled sanctioned posts in various departments during the last 5 years. There was a heated debate in the state assembly as TMC MLAs kept demanding the figure, while the chief minister avoided giving the information, stating the information was not readily available. “The government is intentionally avoiding giving this information,” Rangsakona legislator Zenith Sangma charged while asking a supplementary. Reacting to the allegation, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said, “The member is free to presume things but all this information has to be collected from the multiple directorates and offices of the different departments of the state government.” He said he cannot mislead the House since only partial information was available with the government as the vacancies changed during the course of time. The Chief Minister said there are over 63 directorates, more than 60 departments, 12 deputy commissioner offices, 6 sub-division offices, 49 blocks and Meghalaya houses in Guwahati, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and other places. “We have more than 200 different offices and even at the district level, there are also offices of different departments. Therefore, the exercise of collecting data is complicated, but we are in the process,” he said. Not satisfied with the CM"s reply, the TMC legislator said that he does not know why the Government was "trying to beat around the bush". Another TMC legislator, Winnerson D Sangma, asked why the departments could not provide such information to the chief minister considering that government functioning was now IT enabled systems. Other TMC leaders insisted that the chief minister provide information at least up to March 31, 2021. PTI JOP JRC JRC