Mukul announces Rs 15 cr corpus for students
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said on Monday the government would enhance salaries of all existing teachers by 100 per cent.
Replying to the discussion on the budget, Sangma said after 2013 the State government had increased the salary of teachers by 100 per cent and the same would be followed for all categories of teachers.
He said the department has examined the matter and a Cabinet memo has also been prepared in this connection.
Lamenting the fact that many times students do not get their scholarships due to delay by the Union Ministry, the chief minister also proposed a corpus fund of Rs 15 crore to enable students to get their scholarship even if there is a delay from the ministry.
Commenting on the delay in implementing schemes in the State, Sangma rued that many times, government schemes are delayed due to unavailability of land. So the government has intimated the departments not to submit proposals until they have identified land to be used for a particular scheme.
Stressing on the need to invest more in rural areas of the State for livelihood activities, Sangma added that huge funds have been allocated to the C&RD Department so that migration from rural to urban areas can be checked.
For that purpose, Sangma said the government has also sanctioned 20 residential schools but the plans ran into problems due to non availability of land.
He, however, sounded optimistic that the residential schools would be functional from the next academic session.
Sangma also informed that the government has sanctioned the construction of Shillong Engineering College that would come up adjacent to Shillong Polytechnic School and University of Urban Planning and Architecture, Tura, and tenders for both projects will be floated soon.
On the health sector, Sangma said the government will strengthen all the existing 100-bed government hospitals in the State and added that the Megha Health Insurance Scheme will encourage healthy competition between private and government hospitals in the State.
On the tourism sector, Sangma said more than 7 lakh domestic tourists visited the State last year while the number of foreign tourists was around 20,000.
Making a clarion call for developing high-end tourism in the State, Sangma said a conducive environment for tourists has been created after 2013 because before that the State was subjected to bandhs and agitations.