25 review meetings held in a single day
TURA: The Conrad Sangma led MDA government has cleared five policies for the state during its first ever cabinet meeting in Tura on Monday with one of the most significant being the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Services Rules of 2017 that empowers citizens to ensure their entitlements reach them.
In back to back meetings that stretched throughout the day, the cabinet ministers held series of meetings with their respective departments to review the developmental aspects of the government.
In sync with the government’s motto ‘Cabinet on the Move’ Chief minister Conrad Sangma told media persons that as many as twenty-five review meetings of various departments were taken up by the ministers during the day.
The Social Audit Bill of 2017, which was passed by the cabinet during its two hour long meeting at the circuit house, chaired by the Chief minister Conrad Sangma, will now ensure fifty percent of villages in the state getting government schemes are audited in a year. It will empower the citizens to seek their entitlements, pensions and ensure government schemes reach them.
The department of Community and rural Development had sought approval for the draft rules to the Original Act and the cabinet has now approved the proposed draft rules.
The cabinet through the Programme Implementation Department has also decided to aggressively implement further systematic review of departments in every district.
For this, the cabinet has cleared the proposal to have one minister per district for one year to review the workings of the government departments in tandem with the district heads.
Another bill cleared by the cabinet was on the Amendment of Meghalaya Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules 2011.
This, according to Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong who briefed the media after the cabinet meet, is in conformity to the amendment of central rules to Right to Education by the government of India.
The proposal on solid waste management of Urban Affairs department called the ‘Solid Waste Management Policy’ was also approved and will come into force immediately, it was announced.
The government has also cleared a proposal from Commerce & Industry department called the “ Meghalaya Start up Policy 2018” which is targeted at the youth . The cabinet approved the proposal to help young and talented entrepreneurs of the State. Under this policy individuals and societies will be able to avail a tax holiday and also get subsidy benefits of up to 25 percent.
The final cabinet bill cleared during the meeting was the Meghalaya State Sports Policy 2018- The department presented the draft policy which the cabinet approved after fine tuning all aspects of the policy.
The next cabinet meeting of the government has been scheduled for jowai in Jaintia Hills, informed Dy CM Tynsong during the media briefing.