SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said many of the government projects are defeated due to lack of mobile towers.
Addressing the 22nd national conference on e-governance 2019 in the city on Thursday, Sangma talked about the challenges of digital connectivity in the North East, especially Meghalaya.
He thanked the Centre for sanctioning new mobile towers for the state, which would help to reduce the challenges of connectivity.
He described how application of technology is close to his heart and how important it is for achieving effective citizen centric governance.
He said, “It is not the best technology that matters, but it is how best the available technology is applied for the larger good of the masses”.
Stating that North East shares international borders and the unavailability of mobile towers is a big hindrance with many of the BSF personnel using the Bangladesh network or other security personnel depending on Myanmar network, the chief minister said the issue should be resolved as it is a matter of national security.
Sangma said conferences like these will help in facilitating pooling of great experience and best practices, that go a long way in addressing traditional challenges using new age technologies.
Talking in terms of governance, he said that proper data collection is of prime importance to make quality decision and without proper connectivity, it becomes all the more difficult.
Citing an instance where simple use of technology helped in achieving greater result, Sangma said South West Garo Hills has a big problem of maternal mortality rate and the government without any investment took up a pilot project with the introduction of innovative GPS based system to map and predict which mother was expecting and accordingly prepared a chart to send ambulance and bring the mothers to the closest hospital.
He said the institutional delivery jumped up to 100 percent and added that the state government will replicate this in other districts
Sangma also talked about e-initiatives being launched by the Meghalaya government for revolutionising the farming and entrepreneurship sectors in the state.
He stressed on the need for focusing on villages and leveraging technology to make them smart in addition to creating smart cities.
During his address, Hamletson Dohling, Minister for IT and Communications, noted that information and communication technology is a powerful tool to bring the government and public together and ensure efficient public service delivery.
He said that NCeG is an important platform to realise the huge potential of ‘Digital Dividend’ across the country.
He enlisted the citizen centric initiatives taken by Meghalaya, like e-districts; sponsoring students and local companies to increase digital literacy in the state, among others.
He urged the union minister to continue to provide Centre’s support in realising the dream of Meghalaya in establishing an IT hub.
