By Toki Blah
The contest is over and the state of Meghalaya now has a new Government n place. The ecstasy of victory for those who won has by now jaded. The bitter taste of defeat for those who lost has begun to wane. For both, the time has come to start thinking about moving forward; to start peering into the future; to start crafting strategies and plans for the days and years to come. Time to sit down and take stock of the situation is now of prime importance. The problems before the MDA Govt are many and varied. Political stability is a priority with the CM having the unenviable task of holding his coalition together; of pleasing everyone; of keeping governance on track. A tough call! Then there is the issue of development; the need to fill an empty exchequer; of investing into sectors that are expected to give the fastest returns; of providing employment to a growing population of educated unemployed; tackling the issue of influx and border dispute with our neighbour Assam and a host of other related issues that affect the state and its people. Trouble is everything demands immediate attention. A start however has to be made somewhere. So from where do we start?
Perhaps a positive start of sorts has already happened. A pre- Budget dash to Delhi has resulted in Central blessings to the State’s SOS for financial assistance. Hopefully the State coffers should now have no fears of running dry. Then the Secretariat also has started buzzing quite early these days. A welcome change! The Chief Minister is in his office by 10 am meeting with his Officers and departmental heads and then interacting with the public by 11 am. A non- intrusive pressure tactic forcing most Ministers and Govt officials to also be in their rooms by 10 is; reminiscent of those bygone days of Presidents Rule. No official notification to this effect has been issued but the Secretariat is humming by 10 every morning. So are we witnessing a transformation in Secretariat work culture? One hopes so! Then the Home minister publically stated that there would be no negotiations with militants unless they first lay down their arms. Out of the jungle 8 GNLA militants stepped out and surrendered with their arms. The message that comes out is the Govt is serious and means business and this augurs well for future security, peace and tranquillity in Meghalaya.
It is however in the realm of infrastructure development that the performance of this Govt will be judged for the next five years of its term. Question is where should the Govt place its priorities; which are the sectors that preference is to be given over others in view of the scarcity of resources. In this regard it is heartening to note the priority given to education in the MDA budget. 968.62crores for education, the second largest allocation, but probably most of this will be towards meeting salaries of teachers. It is hoped that once this is met perhaps the focus of education can once again shift to its principal objective – the welfare of its students. An ICARE seminar in 2017 on education came up with the following data based information. (1) Meghalaya has no Education Policy or a curriculum for the schools to follow. An Educational vacuum exists in our state. (2) In comparison with students from other states, Meghalaya students have poor learning achievements in science and mathematics. In a science and technological based environment, Meghalaya is losing out big time. (3) Both 10th and 12th standards have low pass rates (4) In higher education 75 % students opt for arts over commerce and science. This imbalance demands immediate rectification. (5) there was a high dropout rate after the 8th standard. (6) the most alarming is that we have only 19% trained teachers to cater to the needs of our primary schools. The statement of the Education Minister to revamp the Education system and to provide quality education to our children is strategic paradigm shift. This focus of the Govt on the development of our soft infrastructure such as Education is a step long awaited and is most welcome.
The largest allocation of the budget is towards Community and Rural Development with a whooping 1457.94 crores. Here too investment on infrastructure is called for. The need of the hour is to give hope to the rural sector of our economy. We must endeavour to stop the mass influx of our rural youth to our urban and semi urban centres. How can we develop enterprise, local skills and economic resurgence without providing adequate and sufficient power to the country side? Only 446.62 crores has been allocated to the Power sector hardly enough for the MeECL to meet its current outstanding liabilities. Rural development must therefore step in to supplement and needs to invest heavily in micro and alternate energy generation for our rural areas. Technology exists today to enable us to generate locally the domestic needs of a rural community. The locals will be trained towards maintenance. Transmission costs will also be drastically cut. Meghalaya must take a second look at what can be achieved in this sector.
We turn to agriculture which supports 80 % of our population. What do we find? It’s a sector with a dismal 1.5 % growth rate. It’s on the brink of a collapse but only 252.28 crore has been allocated here! In a Top Down ‘We know all’ approach, the incentive to grow was target driven by a bureaucracy that simply did not understand upland agriculture. The Govt officials had incentives to meet their departmental targets; the farmer on the other hand saw no market incentive to grow more. Agriculture stagnated and held no future for the rural youth who continued to flock to Meghalaya’s urban centres. We have to inject the sustainability factor to our rural agricultural activities; it should be attractive to the rural youth who need to be retained in their respective villages and this can only come about if rural products can be linked to vibrant and viable markets. The tragedy today is that for most agriculturists their vision of a market for their produce ends only at Iewduh, Tura Bazar or Iawmusiang. This is a village concept of marketing. Surely there must be other means on how to market our agricultural products! Once again C&RD efforts can perhaps help with market identification for our agricultural products. A non conventional approach is called for to solve the above problem.
Conrad Sangma the new CM made a very significant remark when he stated that the time to have a Look South policy has arrived. Looking South means looking at Bangladesh; the economic opportunities it has to offer; its markets for Meghalaya products; and the transit opportunities for an outlet to the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh has a 180 million population which can consume anything Meghalaya has to offer. Chow chow or piskot, as it is locally known, instantly comes to mind. It’s a cheap vegetable that can instantly turn our marginal upland agriculturalists into affluent businessmen. Bangladesh also has an elite business class thirsting for places to holiday in. The cool hills of Meghalaya are the nearest place for them to relax and unwind. These are tourist that are rich and can pay in dollars. Improve communications with Bangladesh. There is immediate need for the state to take up at the Consular Level the matter of promoting Meghalaya tourism in the neighbouring country.
Meghalaya tourism need not be confined to sightseeing only. True this is the present USP for our tourism industry but tourism can also be expanded into the Educational and Health sectors of the state. English is the strong point of our education and in a computerised world where the internet reigns, knowledge of English becomes mandatory. Meghalaya could therefore cater to the English learning requirements of surrounding countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh. Students from those countries should be encouraged to come learn English in Meghalaya. Meghalaya also possesses quality health care institutions such as NEIGRIHMS etc. A salubrious climate plus a pollution free environment makes the state an ideal health resort. Crafting a tourism policy round the above could pay rich dividends for the state and its people. These are some of the few and immediate initiatives that the MDA can take up on a fast track mode. No doubt there are others sectors such as communications, food security, Commerce and Industries, Urban Development etc, etc that also need to be tackled on a war footing. The prime need however is on how to improve our own revenue generating capacity without hurting our delicate environment. Out of the box thinking can perhaps deliver a viable answer!
The author is President of ICARE