Shillong, Apr 13: The Meghalaya government is proposing to equip community health centres (CHCs) and primary health centres (PHCs) in the state with solar lights to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

Replying to the budget discussion in Assembly on Friday, chief minister Conrad K Sangma said, “We want to equip our CHCs and PHCs with solar lights including for refrigerators and the government has already started a pilot project at Nartiang PHC in West Jaintia Hills district.

“We are working on this project and now we desire to take it to the next level,” he said.

Stating that the government is committed to ensure the two medical colleges come up as a long term solution to address shortage of doctors and nurses in the state, Conrad however said community medical officers will also be appointed to reduce the gap.

“Nurses will be sent for training under IGNOU within this year so that they can act as community medical officers who will be attending to the basic requirements,” he said while informing that 32 existing sub-centres will be upgraded to health and wellness centres.

The Chief Minister also informed that the government will ensure that more people are covered under the Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) and also try to combine it with Centre’s scheme, while admitting that this would be a complicated exercise.

Meanwhile, he said that the government is also examining the proposal for setting up libraries in the different district headquarters and blocks across the state, construct astroturf in every district in a phase manner as well as build stadium in all district.