By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The newly-elected MUA-II government in the State has added another feather to its cap by awarding the all important Home (Police and Jail) portfolio to Congress legislator Roshan Warjri, making her the first-ever female Home Minister of Meghalaya.
She will hold additional responsibility of PWD (Buildings). Deputy Chief Minister Rowell Lyngdoh will hold charge of Home (Passport).
Warjri’s portfolios were announced on Tuesday night after she was sworn in into the Council of Ministers by Governor RS Mooshahary at Raj Bhavan earlier in the day.
Warjri’s appointment as the Home Minister is seen as an indication of Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma’s trust and expectations from the women members of his Cabinet.
In the previous Mukul-led MUA-I Government, the portfolio was held by senior Congress leader HDR Lyngdoh.
Warjri, then a UDP legislator, had held the portfolio of Urban Affairs in the then late BB Lyngdoh cabinet in 1998.
She, however, took a break from politics by not contesting the Assembly elections in 2003 and 2008.
Warjri’s family has traditionally supported regional parties and even her husband late Korbar Sing was elected as legislator in 1988 from the now defunct Hill People’s Union (HPU).
After the demise of her late husband, Warjri was elected to the House consecutively in 1993 and 1998, both times from regional parties.
Warjri was heading the Meghalaya State Commission for Women (MSCW) but she put in her papers to contest the February 23 polls.
Roshan Warjri is a Bachelor of Arts (Distinction) degree holder from Lady Keane College (1967), then under the Gauhati University.