By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary has said that the State Government is ‘seriously concerned’ over the rising incidents of rape in the State and is contemplating to entrust such cases to the Fast Track Courts at Shillong and Jowai in order to bring the culprits to justice.
“All rape cases from East, West, South, North and South West Garo Hills districts including the Williamnagar rape case have been transferred to the Fast Track Court at Tura,” Mooshahary said during his customary address on the inaugural day of the Budget Session on Thursday.
He also informed that the purpose of establishing a Special Court at Nongstoin for rape cases has yielded results and six persons have been convicted in the six cases disposed of.
Meanwhile, Mooshahary said that a separate Meghalaya High Court will be functioning very soon even as informing that the separation of Judiciary from Executive will also be brought about in other districts in a phased manner for which Judicial Officers are being provided with mandatory training.
“Administrative approval for both temporary and permanent Judiciary Court Buildings at Tura, Williamnagar, Nongpoh and Nongstoin has been accorded including temporary court buildings at Jowai. Construction of these buildings will be expedited and efforts to finalise the land in other districts would be intensified,” the Governor said.
In respect of air connectivity, he said that the expansion of the Umroi Airport will be expedited.
Though there is an initiative to expand the airport the ground reality is that there is no flight which is taking off from the Umroi Airport at present after Air Alliance withdrew its flight service from the airport following the scrapping of the agreement with the North Eastern Council.
“A new helipad is also proposed to be located at New Shillong,” Mooshahary informed.
He, however, informed that the provisions of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 will become effective from April 2013.
“The Government is taking steps to ensure all the provisions of the Act are complied with, taking local situation under consideration. Besides notification of appropriate orders and finalisation of the requisite rules, schematic activities relating to improvement of infrastructure and training of teachers are being implemented on the basis of GIS and school data at field level. A detailed plan and budget has been formulated for plugging infrastructure gaps and will be submitted to the Government of India for funding support,” Mooshahary said.
With regard to the private universities, the Governor informed that the Government will ensure their proper functioning by putting in place appropriate regulatory measures.
Besides providing tablets to students under the Digital Learning Scheme, Mooshahary said that the teachers will also be provided with teaching aid material in the form of Tablet PCs to be linked with overhead projectors for modern and attractive teaching methods to ensure better students interaction and participation.