By Our reporter
SHILLONG: The Cabinet has approved the constitution of the Meghalaya Council for Climate Change and Sustainable Development.
“We have constituted this council in accordance with the National Action Plan on Climate Change which was launched by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh,” Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
He said the main objective of this Commission is to sensitise the people on how to adapt to climate change.
“We are also preparing a State action plan to mitigate and adapt to climate change,” Dr Mukul said adding that initiatives would also be taken to address various issues concerning climate change.
The Chief Minister said the Government would also harnessing various resources which are sustainable and environment friendly. He also said that the flagship state scheme – Integrated Basin and
Livelihood Development Programme – would be linked to the projects to be taken up by the Council.
Meghalaya State Rural Livelihood Society: Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also informed that the Cabinet has approved the establishment of the Meghalaya State Rural Livelihood Society to implement the National Rural Livelihood Mission earlier known as the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY).
MLAs salary hiked: The State Cabinet has decided to raise the salaries of legislators to Rs 20,000 from the existing Rs 5,000 even though the monthly total emoluments would remain at Rs 1.3 lakh. Informing this after a Cabinet meeting here on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister in charge Parliamentary Affairs Rowell Lyngdoh said, “the increase in MLAs salaries was made due to objections from some of the legislators during the last Assembly session on the proposal to increase the pension of the ex-MLAs to Rs 10,000”. “In real sense the monthly total emolument of the MLAs will not go up. It is only an internal adjustment to see that the salaries of the MLAs are higher than the pension received by the ex-MLAs,” Deputy Chief Minister said. Elaborating further, Lyngdoh said the travelling allowance of the MLAs has been reduced from the existing Rs 15,000 to Rs 5,000.