SHILLONG, JUNE 7: The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) has accepted the blueprint prepared by the state government on the proposal to relocate the 342 families of Sweepers’ Colony from Them Iew Mawlong to the existing land of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB).
In its order after hearing the matter, the division bench comprising of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh said, “Learned Advocate-General reports that Counsel for the Harijan Panchayat Committee has agreed, in principle, to the blueprint prepared by the government but has made some suggestions for modification in certain areas.”
“Since the State is looking at the suggestions for modification, let the matter come up three weeks hence. It is hoped that the parties will now resolve the long pending issue and give a quietus to these matters,” the bench stated.
The next hearing on the matter will be held on July 3, 2023.
The government had come up with a blueprint after rejecting the April 25,2022-proposal of the HPC that 200 square meters of land be provided to each of the 342 families within the European ward besides bearing the cost of construction of their homes.
SHILLONG, JUNE 7: Adviser to the education department Himalaya M Shangpliang on Wednesday said priority will be given for repairing dilapidated school buildings in far flung rural areas of the state.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting, Shangpliang said that the school buildings in the different districts, particularly in the rural areas, are in bad shape.
“We are going to take stock of the situation on how and where and what kind of assistance that these particular schools in different districts would require,” he said.
“Top priority will be given to those schools that are already dilapidated and for that the list has already reached the table of the minister and we are going to take a review with the engineering wing as well as the other organizations which are involved in the construction and the repair of the school buildings,” Shangpliang added.
On the issue of non-attendance of school teachers, the Adviser said, “We already received complaints (on the matter). Therefore, a system has been developed where a particular app will be introduced to monitor the attendance of school teachers.”
“We are not really confining ourselves to just the school teachers’ attendance. Now this particular app which is a centrally sponsored app will oversee the overall performance of a classroom meaning we are going to even monitor the attendance of a child and how the child performs in the classroom and monitor performance of the teachers inside the classrooms including the attendance,” he added.
SHILLONG, JUNE 7: Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh on Wednesday informed that the department will soon conduct a fresh survey on the population of drug users.
Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said there are over 2.5 lakh drug users in the state as per statistics readily available with the department.
“These are figures (2.5 lakh) of the department and they are of three years ago and what I am saying is that we need to update these figures so let the new director (of the department) take over and then we can begin the fresh survey,” he said.
He also said, “Considering the fact that most of these drug users are youths who are in their 20s upto 30s very productive age and also that we have even not just boy, even girls indulging in drug abuse and this is again link to diseases like HIV/AIDs and general lack of direction in life for these people. So we will be advocating for more awareness programmes and we will certainly pay more attention to this aspect.”
Lyngdoh said the government will intensify its action plan on rehabilitation of members of the society who have gone in the wrong way adding “we should be able to cover the entire state in the next six months.”
When asked, he said, “We intend to set up more rehab centres. The only issue here is the exorbitant rate charged by private sectors on this, the government has to step in but as I had just taken over it is not even three months, we will certainly give this all the required attention and we will certain be able to initiate our own rehab centres at least beginning with the state capital.”
Meanwhile, the minister also asserted the need to strengthen the rules of the NDPS Act for empowering the police to effectively deal with drug trafficking.
SHILLONG, JUNE 7: The state government is yet to appoint a new chairperson of the Meghalaya State Commission for Women (MSCW).
Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh on Wednesday said that the government is yet to appoint the new chairperson of the MSCW.
“I have studied the file. The person concerned (P Toi) is not only about her being involved in election campaign but according to the rules, she is supposed to attend at least three meetings of the board and she has abstained from four meetings and therefore, she does not qualify to be chairperson any longer,” Lyngdoh said.
He said that the government has to be very careful in the selection of the new incumbent after such experience.
“We need to ensure that we have people who can give a lot of attention as a women commission is a very important constitutional body and you have to have people who have the drive, the interest in that office as there is so much that the commission is being entrusted with,” Lyngdoh said.
When asked, the minister said that the department will come up with a panel of names for appointment of the new chairperson of the commission.
“We will come up with a panel of names and that panel of names will then come up to me for consideration as minister and then discuss this with the Chief Minister,” he said.
To another query, Lyngdoh admitted that appointment of a chairperson should not be based on political allegiance.
“You need not doubt as I always prefer merit, I always prefer quality so there is no shadow of doubt that we will not live up to those standards, we have to set standards for the state and such appointees should in fact not be selected based on their political allegiance,” he said.
SHILLONG, JUNE 7: Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh said that the inquiry report has found out that all allegations of rice are baseless.
Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said, “As per this report all allegations of rice scam are baseless and there is no iota of truth in any of the allegations. That is also the view that has also been put up before the Advocate General (AG) of the state and the AG was very clear, was very lucid, was very pointed in his observation that the allegations have no legs to stand upon and therefore, the case cannot be regarded as a scam.”
“Having obtained the views of the law department and the AG and having observed the view that the actual incident and the case were delayed because of lack of coordination with the Assam police where the scam was supposed to have taken place, I had observed accordingly that in future there should be a definite timeline for inquiries so that parties who are alleged to have committed such scams and the department are not drag into needless controversies,” he said.
When asked, Lyngdoh said, “From the file noting, it was just a matter of the location which was not properly recorded and therefore, the case was handed over to the Assam police and on further inquiry and based on the inquiry report, the file then went through the law department and the advocate general and they were very clear that no such scams had taken place.”
SHILLONG, JUNE 6: The State Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Chief Minister’s Solar Mission.
Informing this after the meeting, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said that the idea and purpose of the mission is to have sustainable green energy and also be part of the energy mix.
“In this process, the government will subsidize different house units, institutional units and house units in urban and rural areas where we will be subsidizing a certain percentage where a technology based on the photovoltaic cell plus an inverter and a battery backup will be given which will be a hybrid system. This will allow some sort of stability in the power in the long run and we strongly feel that this will add to the energy mix. This will be a decentralized model,” he said.
Sangma informed that the government will be able to roll out the CM’s Solar Mission within the next one month.
SHILLONG, JUNE 6: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday said the government will have to spend an additional Rs 300 crore to buy power in view of the prevailing situation.
Speaking to reporters in Shillong, Sangma said, “On an average in the last two years, the government is spending approximately Rs 600 crore of the state’s revenue to pay for different expenditures including purchase of power from MeECL’s point of view to maintain the kind of power that we have today.”
“We are purchasing close to Rs 3 crore of power every day even now considering the kind of scenario we are facing today. Hence, if the situation continues in the next 100 days, we will be spending an additional of Rs 300 crore just to buy power, just to maintain this level the loadshedding that we have,” he said.
The CM also informed, “The situation is very complicated but we are doing our best to ensure that the load shedding doesn’t go beyond this.”
Sangma said that Umiam power project is almost at a point of shutting down as the state has not been receiving the required rainfall in the past few months adding this has been one of the most difficult months in terms of rain for the state.
He said that the power scenario is also bad in most parts of the country today.
“Almost every state is facing similar crisis which we are facing. That’s because as I said the rains are affecting everybody and the overall scenario is bad everywhere.”
The chief minister said the government is augmenting its measures and solar measure will be one of those measures to address power crisis but it will take time.
“But as we move forward I am hopeful that in the next two-three years we will see more inputs from the solar power into the decentralised system of the houses and homes which we can then have it on solar as a backup.”
He said the government is also working very closely with the thermal producing plants because “we are keen that now that licenses for mining are being given, we are hopeful that we are able to start the thermal plants also and that maybe a long term solution that we may see in the next 3-4 years’ time.”
“So we are taking some very strong steps towards it but yes these few months we had in the past and the current time also is very difficult for us. I won’t hesitate in saying that this is one of the most difficult times that MeECL has faced because of multiple aspects,” he said.
SHILLONG, JUNE 6: Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya will jointly visit West Jaintia Hills and Karbi Anglong area by the end of this month.
informing this, Chief Minsiter Conrad K Sangma said the joint visit will be towards the end of June.
He said that the two chief ministers will go to certain areas where there have been a lot of tensions. “The idea is to build up the confidence of the people out there and also to send a positive message to the people that we are serious to find a solution to this border problem,” Sangma said.
SHILLONG, JUNE 6: The formal peace talks between the Centre, State and the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), which is scheduled to be held in the first week of this month, has been delayed due to the situation in neighbouring Manipur.
“As you are aware the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is quite busy with the different developments in Manipur and it has made things slightly more complicated. So we are in touch with the MHA,” Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters here on Tuesday.
Stating that the Centre is very serious about the peace talks, Sangma said, “They (MHA) are very serious about this entire thing and we should be starting (the formal peace talks) very soon. But we have had a bit of complications because of the Manipur situation and the government of India and MHA are very deeply involved in what’s happening there. So I hope we should be able to move things forward very soon.”
SHILLONG, JUNE 6: The state Cabinet on Tuesday approved the proposal to set up a separate Directorate of Forensic Sciences in the state.
Addressing the media after chairing the meeting, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, “We have decided that the Directorate of Forensic Sciences will be created.”
He said there is a forensic science cell under the police headquarters and as per one of the human rights commissions, this particular department had to be created and come straight under the home department and hence that decision has been made today.
“So, the manpower and necessary systems are in place and hence its only the administrative decision to have a separate directorate for forensic sciences. Of course, we have also decided that we will strengthen the entire forensic department by ensuring more investments are made in the equipments,” Sangma added.
The Cabinet has also approved the amendment to the Rules of Executive Business.
“As you are aware the planning department was renamed as planning, investment, promotion and sustainable development department and hence as a regularization process the amendment to the rules of executive business had to be done and that has to be cleared by the cabinet and that has been done today,” the CM said.
Meanwhile, Sangma said that Cabinet has also cleared the proposal to include the Secretary of the Meghalaya State Public Service Delivery Commission in the list of heads of departments under rule FR and SR 1984.
“This is a basic purpose to ensure that the secretary of the commission is able to have all the necessary powers so that they can conduct normal procedures and will be able to have the expenditures made at their level and they dont have to come to the government for different approvals,” he added.
9th Mile, Khanapara, Ri Bhoi, June 5, 2023: Once again, the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya has been ranked among the top 200 universities of India in the eighth edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2023 which has been declared today by Minister of State for Education and External Affairs, Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh. USTM is the only private university in the northeastern region to achieve this place for the second consecutive year. The parameters on which institutes are ranked are teaching learning and resources, research and professional practice, graduation outcome, outreach and inclusivity, and perception. IIT Madras has topped in overall NIRF Rankings, followed by IISc Bangalore in second position and IIT Delhi stood third. Under the top India rankings in the University category, the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru topped, followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University (2nd), Jamia Millia Islamia (3rd), Jadavpur University (4th), Banaras Hindu University (5th), Manipal Academy of Higher Education-Manipal (6th), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (7th), Vellore Institute of Technology (8th), Aligarh Muslim University (9th), University of Hyderabad (10th). Among the North East universities, Tezpur University has been ranked 69, Mizoram University is ranked 76, North Eastern Hill University is ranked 80, and Gauhati University is ranked 88. While Assam University, Dibrugarh University and Manipur University were ranked 101-150, the Central Agricultural University and University of Science and Technology Meghalaya are ranked 151-200. “With 13 categories, this edition of NIRF is the largest in its scope to date,” says Anil Sahasrabuddhe, Chairman, National Board of Accreditation (NBA). “We started NIRF with four categories. The aim was to improve the quality of higher education and help students make decisions. With the 8th edition, we now have 12 categories including 8 subject-specific rankings,” says Anil Kumar Nassa, member secretary of NBA (which prepares NIRF), at the event marking the release of NIRF rankings today.
SHILLONG, JUNE 5: The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) on Monday demanded that the terms of reference of the expert committee should be to review the 1972 state reservation policy.
“The Cabinet is meeting soon to decide on the matter. As we have made our stand clear in the all-party meeting, we reiterate our demand that the terms of reference of the expert committee should be to review the state reservation policy so that it will be a balanced, unbiased and fair policy,” KHNAM working president Thomas Passah said in a statement issued here.
“As per the chief minister Conrad K Sangma, the expert committee has been constituted to examine or study whether it is feasible or safe to revisit/review the state reservation policy but not to review the policy. We are made to understand that the chief minister is planning to delay this matter till the end of this five year term,” he said.
The working president also expressed apprehension that the expert committee would in the end recommend that reviewing the policy will not be feasible because it will be too risky due to the Supreme Court’s ruling that reservation cannot be beyond 50%.
“Due to this, we demand the government to include eminent personalities from Khasi region like Patricia Mukhim, VGK Kynta, Toki Blah, Robert Kharjahrin, Dr Sumarbin Umdor, HOD Economic department of NEHU and others,” he added.
