By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma has agreed to set up a joint government-civil society commission to monitor and advise on environmental governance including the result from existing acts, policies and rules and review therein.
Setting up of the joint government-civil society commission was one of the demands in the Citizens Declaration adopted after the Citizens’ Conference on Environmental Governance (CCEG) here on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference after the concluding function of the CCEG, Dr Sangma said, “We can set the ball rolling and immediately start working on the declaration.”
He also pointed out that the development approaches must take into account environmental conservation, stating that industries being set up in the state should not be at the cost of the environment and the Government is also working on the same lines.
Earlier while addressing the gathering, he said that very often people discuss problems ad nauseum but do not help to find solutions. In a democratic set-up people have the onus to also propose possible solutions to problems that they flag.
Dr Sangma said as policy makers it is time to take ideas from the civil societies to blend with new innovations and ideas which will help in bringing positive approach to good governance. “That also translates to good politics,” he said.
Pointing out that environmental governance as it currently stands is far from meeting one or more of these imperatives and is unable to deal with the complex character of environmental issues Dr. Sangma further said that despite great awareness of environmental issues there is environmental degradation and the appearance of new environmental problems.
ICARE president Toki Blah, later, said the objective behind organizing the event was to start engaging with the Government on environment issues as for the last forty years civil societies have been on a confrontational path but have not been getting too far on environmental issues.
The main objective of the conference was to engage Government, stakeholders and civil society in constructive debate over the impact of poor environment governance on holistic and sustainable development for Meghalaya and to bring to the fore, policy loopholes that encourage the exploitation of land, labour and natural resources, to enlist support from government, NGOs, social organization, student community and the public on a range of issues that affect and impact the environment and water resources and also to develop action plans to tackle issues flagged and agree on a minimum list of achievement to be met within an agreed time.
The conference also adopted a 14-point Citizens’ Declaration on Environmental Conservation besides appealing to Government and Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) to sort out the overlapping jurisdictions pertaining to the administration of forest and environment, water resources and mining and geology.