SHILLONG: Meghalaya joined the rest of the country in celebrating the 74th Independence Day where Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma hoisted the tri-colour at Polo Ground, Shillong.
This year due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the celebration was limited to only a few activities which included marching contingents from the Meghalaya Police, Central Reserved Police Force (CRPF) and Meghalaya Police Radio Organization and the brass band of the Border Wing Home Guards.
During his speech, the Chief Minister congratulated health workers and other frontline workers for being able to manage the COVID 19 crisis. He said the State was among the lowest COVID-impacted States in the country in terms of number of cases per million. The State now has 12 testing centres and have scaled up daily testing capacity to 1000 RT-PCR, the Chief Minister mentioned. He further highlighted various steps taken up by the Government of Meghalaya and others including the village management committees to contain the spread of COVID 19.
He informed that the Chief Minister’s Task Force on the economy was constituted to recommend reforms to rejuvenate the economy in the short, medium and long-term and based on these recommendations the Government will launch ‘Restart Meghalaya Mission’.
The Chief Minister said the Mission is a series of programmes to support farmers, entrepreneurs working in different fields and sectors. An amount of 14,515 crore rupees will be spent over the next three years for the Mission and out of the amount 7,839 rupees have been earmarked for this year, he added.
He further noted that the State Government was promoting various other schemes and projects which include National Rural Livelihood Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana besides other. The Chief Minister said that the State Government was also leveraging on the Jal Jeevan Mission and targeting to provide functional household tap connections to 5,89,000 households in the State by 2022.
Later the Chief Minister honoured 71 health workers who had contracted COVID 19, by giving citations in recognition of their service to the State.