AMPATI: Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said that the creation of new districts has brought about a turnaround in development of the State, enabling the government to reach out more effectively to the people with its developmental schemes and welfare programmes, adding that the newly created four districts in 2012 were accorded special attention to accelerate growth and remove the developmental and economic disparity.
He was addressing a huge gathering of the people of South West Garo Hills during the grand celebration of the 5th Foundation Day of the district on Monday, which was marked by a myriad of cultural dances and performances by school children and cultural troupes including youth and women groups, according to aPress Communique.
Organized by the district administration, the day’s celebration started with Ampati Run participated by over 200 runners early in the morning, which was followed by students’ march from Ampati Police Station to the Students’ Field where the main celebration was held.
MLAs from the four Assembly constituencies of the district, including the Chief Minister, Sports & Youth Affairs Minister, Government Chief Whip W.D. Sangma and Chairperson, Meghalaya Resource & Employment Generation Council, Dikkanchi D Shira, Chokpot MLA & Chairperson State Development Reforms Commission Bluebell R Sangma, Chief Executive Member, GHADC Boston Marak, Deputy CEM Wenison Ch Marak and other members of the Executive Committee, GHADC were among others who participated in the celebration.
Stating that in bigger districts it was difficult to reach out to different strata of the society with welfare programmes, the Chief Minister said “by bring administration closer to the people we have been able to focus our programmes for the people and ensure that these programmes achieved the desired results”.
“Even after 45 years of Statehood, we still have many villages in the state where people have to walk for 4 to 5 hours to reach the nearest market or the nearest block. Despite the challenges it is our responsibility to ensure that good things that begin in the state capital or district headquarters reach every corner and every household in the state”, he added.
Stating that there is much more to be done across the state, the Chief Minister admitted that there are bad roads in many areas of the state causing a lot of hardship to the people and said that these would be addressed.
The Chief Minister also recalled how the menace of insurgency had posed serious challenges in the development of the region but the government had been able to work to foster and restore peace in the region, he said.
“Had we not created new districts, we would still be fighting with little time to
focus on development. However, creation of new districts has enabled police administration to carry out counter insurgency operations in effective manner” he added.
He assured the people that government would continue to create avenues for the youth and vulnerable section to enable equitable growth and development of
the society to make the state vibrant and set an example for others to
emulate.