SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Friday urged Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for DoNER and Chairman of North Eastern Council (NEC), Jitendra Singh to consider the State Government’s proposal to set up the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) in Meghalaya.
Speaking at the 63rd NEC Plenary Meet here, Sangma said that the proposed IIPH would be a joint initiative of the Meghalaya Government, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFl).
Informing that the State Government has already earmarked 22.3 acres of land for setting up of the IIPH, he said that the IIPH-North East will help improve the health scenario in the region through sustainable educational, research, training, policy and advocacy activities.
“When the institute fully scales up over a ten year period, it plans to educate and train more than 500 students every year in long term courses such as diploma, degree and master degree courses and an additional 500 plus in short term skill and competency building programmes,” Sangma said adding that during its first phase of over five years, the institute plans to train 200 students in long term courses and over 200 in short term courses on a yearly basis.
According to Sangma, the streams of study in the institute would include Indigenous Health Studies, Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases, Nutrition and Public Health Policy, Substance Abuse and Tobacco Control and total capital expenditure in the first phase is estimated at Rs 80 crore.
Sangma unhappy with inadequate outlay
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Chief Minister also lamented the slow and inadequate release of funds under the 12th Five Year Plan.
“The projected outlay of the NEC for the 12th Five Year (2012-17) was Rs 13027.38 crore and the approved outlay conveyed by the Planning Commission was Rs 6108.00 crore. While this itself was inadequate, to make matters worse, the actual allocation since 2012-13 has been static at Rs 770 crore reflecting a decline in real terms and the annual allocation of the NEC needs to be suitably enhanced,” he said.
Sangma said that there is a large bank of sanctions which need to be acted upon quickly in order to avoid cost escalation. While stressing on the need for early release of funds, he suggested the development of an online system for the purpose.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also said that a substantial amount of funds have accumulated in the non lapsable pool reflecting unspent balances by Union Ministries.
Sangma proposed that the non lapsable pool be kept in a revolving fund to be operated by DoNER and made available to the States based on their project proposals, annual demands and utilization capacities. Fund allocations should not be constrained by yearly budgetary ceilings, he said.
During his speech, Sangma also underlined the importance of inter-state roads in NE.
Call for better communication links
The Meghalaya Chief Minister also regretted that an accessible and reliable telecom and IT infrastructure continues to remain an aspiration and a dream for the NER. Better communication links for the NER need to be taken as a strategic priority, he added.
He also demanded that cost of land should be included as a project component in the DPR since in North East, land is community owned and the State owns only a small percentage of land.
Meanwile, the Chief Minister also welcomed the proposal by NEC for rehabilitation of previously funded roads.
“The scope of the support must also be extended beyond roads to cover buildings and life saving medical equipments which has been supported by NEC in the past,” he said.
He also placed before the Council a proposal to encourage local artisans, entrepreneurs, local talents in folk, traditional music and songs to enable them to participate in cultural exchange programmes which may be organized in different ASEAN and neighbouring countries in future.
Call for integrated check gates
Sangma also sought support for integrated check gates in Meghalaya since the State shares a long boundary with neighbouring Assam.
“In order to address taxation issues and to check loss of Government revenue, there is a need to set up integrated check gates in the State and also to create an infrastructure for easy and better monitoring through computerization,” he said.
Sangma also sought support for the proposed New Shillong Township in the state.