Shillong July 25: The Meghalaya government will stand as guarantor in favour of the East Khasi Hills District Cooperative Milk Union under the Meghalaya milk mission for availing a loan of Rs 200 crore.

The East Khasi Hills District Cooperative Milk Union was set up recently and the Union is running a milk processing unit at Mawlai Mawïong.

Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that the production of processed milk at present is 10,000 litres per day, and the government wanted to enhance the production to 50,000 litres per day.

As the union required some financial assistance, he said that the National Cooperative Development Corporation has agreed to give a loan of Rs 200 crore, which include Rs 150 crore soft loan, and Rs 50 crore subsidy.

Meanwhile the state cabinet also has decided to enhance a grant-in-aid to 710 pre-primary school teachers by enhancing their salary from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 per month from August 1 this year.

Tynsong said that the government’s expenditure would be over Rs 5 crore per year in view of the enhancement.

The cabinet also approved the creation of the Meghalaya Community Rural Development Services and Meghalaya Rural Engineering Services under the community and rural development department of the state government so that the department will have its own cadre right from the level of gram sevak to the block development officer.

All these years, the C&RD department has been taking officers, engineers and other staff on deputation from other departments.

Meghalaya Day Awards:

Visually challenged Indian educationist, Bertha Gyndykes Dkhar has been selected for the state award, Pa Togan N Sangma Award in recognition of her dedicated social services she has been rendering.

Dkhar is the headmistress of the Jyoti Sroat School, a school run by the Bethany Society for the visually impaired children. She received the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri, when she featured in the 2010 Indian Republic Day honours. Dkhar is also a recipient of the national award for Child Welfare from the Government of India in 2000.

The other selected awardees include Handam R Marak, a craftsman from Garo Hills who would receive the U Tirot Sing Award in the field of arts and culture, and Indian footballer, Aiborlang Khongjee will receive U Kiang Nangbah Award in recognition of his contributions in the field of sports.

MHIS Phase-IV to converge with Centre’s health insurance scheme

The Meghalaya cabinet on Wednesday approved the implementation of Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) phase-IV, and the state scheme will be converged with the health protection scheme of the Central government under Ayushman Bharat Programme.

Meghalaya Health Minister, A.L. Hek said that the MHIS phase-IV has been approved for implementation and the health coverage is upto Rs. 5 lakh per year per household.

“Not like earlier phases, the MHIS phase-IV would cover all citizens of the state but government employees. The scheme will also now cover various tests and investigations of sicknesses,” Hek said

Earlier the MHIS coverage was Rs 2.8 lakh per card holder which include five beneficiaries in one card per year.

Now the health scheme has been enhanced to Rs 5 lakh per year per household, and a total of 8.8 lakh families would be covered under this scheme.