SHILLONG, Nov 14: The hopes of people in c to a full-fledged district brightened after the recent inauguration of Eastern West Khasi Hills district.
The Sohra District Demand Forum (SDDF) on Sunday said it will soon submit a letter of support of all 237 villages in the sub-division to the state government for its upgrade to a full-fledged district and pursue the demand aggressively.
“We organised a signature campaign of all Khlieh Nongsynshar (traditional heads) after the state government had claimed about a conflict among some villages over the demand,” SDDF member, Alan West Kharkongor said.
He said the letter of support will be submitted to the government to prove that all villages are backing the demand.
“We have so far received letters of support from 70% of the villages. We have set a target to get the letters of support from all villages by November 30,” the SDDF member said.
“We have been very clear since 2018 that the new district will cover areas under Sohra civil sub-division. We had never mentioned that the areas outside the sub-division will form part of this district. Therefore, we will not accept if the government does not grant us the district on the grounds of geographical problem,” Kharkongor said.
The SDDF said Sohra is already equipped with land and buildings and these can be used to set up various government offices if the new district is created. It disagreed with the recent statement of Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma that Sohra’s geography is proving to be a hurdle in mapping the deep valleys that divide Sohra from Pynursla.
The Sohra sub-division is a far-flung geographical entity, spread over a very large area. Many of the villages are hard-to-reach locations where there are no modern amenities for the inhabitants, not even basic facilities, the SDDF said.
As far as the issue of land for the office buildings is concerned, it said the people are ready to donate it for free. It also said that a GAD in Sohra measures about 1,075.70 acres.