Shillong, July 12,2022: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, today inaugurated the P.A. Sangma Fellowship for Legal and Policy Research at Yojana Bhawan which was also attended by Minister, Law etc James K Sangma, Chief Secretary, R V Suchiang, Secretary, Law, C.V.D. Diengdoh and Prof Sony Pellissery from National Law School of India University.
Speaking during the inaugural session, Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma said that the concept of having the fellowship and research based policymaking was something that has been missing for a very long time.
“Though we have bureaucrats and legislators we are not experts in a number of minor details that are very important for proper law making and the larger goal is to ensure that the people are put first by this unique collaboration from the Judiciary and the Legislative side for the larger interest of the people,” he said.
The Chief Minister also said that if there is research based policymaking there will be a better framework to ensure that the system as a whole works and to do that there is a need to build a capacity for everyone.
“This programme is part of the larger goal in order to make sure that the system as a whole improves and the capacity of every individual improves,” he added.
The Chief Minister also said that Late P A Sangma was a person with a very tall personality with diverse background in Law, Journalism, Teaching and Politics. “He was a person who had an understanding of Law and had experience both in the Judiciary as a person who had been practicing Law himself and had experience in policymaking as a Legislator after he entered Politics so it is only befitting that this fellowship programme is named after him,” he added.
Law Minister James K Sangma said that the launch is also the realization of the vision of seeing the boosting of the governance and the student engagements as well as capacity building exercises of the officers of the State.
“Although the State of Meghalaya is small there are socio-economic challenges, challenges in streamlining public services, challenges on ensuring representation and participation and most importantly the challenge of catering governance to the people in a just, timely and impartial manner,” he said.
He also said that it is only when the situation is demanding and one steps up to accomplish tasks to handle and achieve the goals and added that the fellowship that has been instituted is a step to that effect as the fellows will see the same challenges and work on the solutions towards the same.
The Minister further added that governance is a slow process from research and consultations to implementation and monitoring while public expectations are highly dynamic and varied and keeping up with this needs capacity building from time to time to also keep up with evolving and changing times and environments.
The inauguration was also attended by officers from the Law Department, law students and the research fellows.