Shillong, August 15: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma leading the celebrations for 75 years of Independence on Monday at Polo Grounds Shillong highlighted the achievement of the State. He has set the target for the people to further work together to ensure that the State sets a new benchmark of development in the next 25 years.
In his address to the State, he said, “Seventy-five years of independence is a huge milestone in the history of our country. This year also coincides with 50 years of statehood for Meghalaya. Today is a momentous day – a day to reaffirm our commitment to values of courage, non-violence, kindness, and empathy that inspired our freedom struggle and the hill state movement.”
Delivering the Independence Day speech for the 5th time as the Chief Minister, he said, “It has been four and half years since my government came to power. In these four and half years, the State has gone through several challenges and has also overcome them. We survived the COVID pandemic, we have successfully dealt with law-and-order issues and are resolving long pending issues in the sectors of education, health, power, water supply and basic infrastructure.”
Terming the work of his government with a sense of pride and satisfaction, he said, “I believe we have been able to make the lives of every citizen better. That is what this government stands for – making things better, creating new opportunities for growth, caring for all sections of the society, building Meghalaya as a national and global destination, and working together for every Meghalayan.”
Elaborating on the Government’s effort in making people’s lives better, he said, “We are making people’s lives better by creating the right ecosystem that enables and empowers people to solve problems. For instance, our farmers need money during the planting and harvesting seasons. My government is giving 10,000 rupees to every producer household to support them in production activities under the FOCUS and FOCUS+ programs.”
He further said that with the financial assistance being provided by the Government the farmers have been empowered to solve their problems through local decentralized action.
“We are also providing free seeds, setting up processing units and providing marketing support. Our youth have a lot of energy and passion and want to take up several community-based activities. I started the YESS Meghalaya program to provide funding support of up to one lakh rupees to all youth organizations in the State. This will empower our youth organizations to play a decisive role in making Meghalaya better.”
On health and economic well-being of the people, the Chief Minister said, “The health and economic well-being of women has been accorded the highest priority. The IMR of Meghalaya has come down from 33 in 2018 to 29 in 2022. We are amongst the top three State’s alongside Telangana and Kerala in child immunization. At least one woman for every rural household is part of a Self-Help Group and they are taking up various livelihood and enterprise related activities. We have recently enhanced the remuneration of ad-hoc teachers, streamlined the payments of incentives to ASHA workers, muster rolls and contractual employees.”
On infrastructure development that has been accelerated in the State, he said, “My government has built enabling infrastructure in the form of improved schools and hospital buildings, roads, and water supply schemes across the State. New sports, tourism and urban infrastructure are being constructed at a remarkable pace. I do not think any government in the past has been able to deliver at this scale in such a short span of time. I am proud to say that we are today, as a State, miles ahead of where we stood a few years back.”