Meghalaya, February 16, 2024: With an aim to empower the people of the State and the community at large, Hon’ble Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, announced several key initiatives of the Government. Addressing a public gathering at the Meghalaya NEXT Event at the NEHU Convocation Hall in Shillong, Hon’ble Chief Minister highlighted the Government’s commitment on empowering the people of the State.
Addressing the gathering, Hon’ble Chief Minister focussed on the Government’s proactiveness at launching projects worth hundreds of crores on a single day. “Today, we will be inaugurating 15 processing units. There will be close to about 200 Plus units that will be inaugurated through the course of this year,” he said.
Highlighting a unique scheme, the Green Meghalaya, Hon’ble Chief Minister ascertained the Government’s commitment on preserving the forest cover of the State and reverting the damages of severe degradation. “We are trying to pre-empt people from damaging the forest and I’m happy to tell you that we have been able to cover 50,000 hectares in a matter of two years, and we are targeting one and a half lakh hectares now. Today, a record 12 crore is being distributed to different communities to empower the people to protect their own forest and protect their own land,” Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Conrad K. Sangma stated while clarifying doubts that this scheme in no manner takes land away from the rightful owner.
Speaking about the FOCUS program, Hon’ble Chief Minister said, “I’m happy to inform you that in the last two years, we have distributed over 100 crores to over two lakh families in different parts of our state as the first tranche in the first part of our program. We aspire to touch 4,50,000 farmers, which is a massive exercise, but the process is on. But as we move forward, and as was what was promised by me in different forums, we are today again releasing now for this five-year term. Today, we’ll be releasing a tranche of Rs 3.5 crores to almost close to 517 groups.”
The Government of Meghalaya, in a move to enact its water policy, launched the project, ‘Protection of Vulnerable Catchment Areas in Meghalaya’ or ‘MegARISE’. The project’s scope extends to benefiting 106 villages across 39 micro-watersheds. The target groups for this project are communities from 71 villages in the 13 micro- watersheds in Umiew catchment and 35 villages from 26 micro-watersheds in Ganol catchment in Meghalaya.
