From CK Nayak
New Delhi, Feb 11: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to consider the state-specific projects, as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission, for Meghalaya.
Sangma believed the state-specific projects will take forward the state government’s development agenda. He apprised Modi of several new initiatives taken up by the state government to combat climate change.
The projects included the construction of a series of cascading small multi-purpose reservoirs that will enable the impounding of 3,700 mm of annual rainfall which the state receives. The PM appreciated the idea and assured all help from the Centre.
Incidentally, the Finance Commission, under the chairmanship of NK Singh that visited the state, in its report highlighted the economic downturn of Meghalaya after the ban on rat-hole coal mining by the National Green Tribunal in 2014.
“GSDP from mining declined by 59% in 2014-15. It grew only at 1.3% in 2014-15 as mining has strong forward and backward linkages with other economic activities,” the Commission had said in the report.
This had an impact on employment in the state as well, the Commission said. Contribution of the secondary sector almost halved from 31% in 2011-12 to 18% in 2018-19, it added.
Sangma expressed his gratitude to Modi for providing Rs 5,105 crore from the share of Central taxes and Rs 1,279 crore as Revenue Gap Grant for the next financial year. He was appreciative of the other support extended to the hill state by the Centre.
The small multi-purpose reservoir projects will conserve water to be used for varied purposes, including drinking, irrigation, fisheries and tourism development. An externally-aided project of 100 million US dollar has been proposed to the Department of Economic Affairs to fund this ambitious project, Sangma said.
He told the PM that Meghalaya envisages hosting an international conference on climate change and natural resource management with the participation of all CMs from the Northeast and other distinguished personalities in the field. He sought a convenient time from the PM so the state can hold the event in the next three months.
“The conference will provide a platform for showcasing the various climate-related good practices in the region and bring out an action plan for climate change reversal and mitigation. It will also identify a cadre of youth from the region, which will play the leadership role in taking forward the agenda and represent the region and the country in the COP26 Summit at Glasgow, UK,” the CM said.
He told Modi that cadre of natural resource management volunteers are already being raised in each of the 6,500 villages of the state, which is a part of the Meghalaya State Water Mission.
“This cadre will be trained and empowered so they are able to integrate traditional knowledge and modern technologies towards solving the challenges of climate change,” he said.
The CM further apprised the PM of two critical projects for the Northeast – Silchar-Mahendraganj hilly road which includes a bridge over the Brahmaputra and the eight-laning of Guwahati-Shillong-Dawki-Sylhet-Chittagong Highway.