SHILLONG, Dec 21: As many as 34 localities of Shillong, on Tuesday, received funds to aid them in carrying forward various activities under a project of the Meghalaya government to beautify and enhance localities in different parts of the state.
These 34 localities were given cheques totaling Rs 1.5 crore by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and Tourism Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar at a small function here on Tuesday. Also, cheques amounting to Rs 5.40 lakh were handed over to eight localities from Jowai.
An initiative of the Department of Tourism, the project has been termed the ‘Locality Beautification and Enhancement Competition’, as part of which the department will conduct various activities, competitions and projects in respective localities and dorbars to beautify and enhance the localities, empower the community institutions and make them tourist friendly. These activities include painting of compound walls, whitewashing works, repair of publicly visible walls and surfaces, painting of house exterior walls and street art among others.
In its pilot phase, the competition is limited to the localities of Shillong, Tura and Jowai in East Khasi Hills, West Garo Hills and West Jaintia Hills respectively.
Notably, the cheques have been given as catalytic funds so that people residing in these localities can carry forward the needful activities and projects in order to partake in the competition. For the project, the evaluation of the competition will include various components within a specified framework.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, in his address, emphasised the need for the people to start to adopt a sense of ownership of everything. “In our society, we already have that sense of ownership. But somewhere along the line, when it comes to government assets then the sense of ownership goes away,” the CM said after handing over the first installment of the sanctioned amount to various localities who had submitted the proposal as part of the Meghalaya Locality Beautification and Enhancement Competition.
Pointing towards Japan while terming it as a great model for citizens here to follow, the CM said that in Japanese culture, the citizens respect everything whether it is owned by the government or the public.
“The Japanese always believe it is their duty to take care of every asset whether it is government assets or owned by the individual,” Conrad said.
He said that the objective of this programme is to bring a sense of ownership among the people with the active involvement of the traditional bodies like the Dorbar Shnong. “We need the active participation of everyone to give a facelift to the three urban centres — Shillong, Jowai and Tura,” the CM said.
According to him, sense of ownership comes in with sense of participation. “It is for this reason we have brought everyone under one platform to participate in a manner that we will be able to change the face of these three urban centres. We may not be able it back to the level it was may be. But somewhere we have to make a start,” he said.
He said that this concept has come up keeping in mind the 50th Statehood Day celebration. (Contd on P-4)
34 city localities get funds…
(Contd from P-3) “We wanted to make the people part of the celebration. We also need to realise that we can do things in a limited manner. But if the society and the community come together, then the scope is unlimited,” Sangma said.
According to him, this is a programme where they will incentivize the entire process of maintenance and beautification of the city and especially the localities at the grassroots level. “We were really contemplating many things in it within the limited budget that we have. We may not be able to do everything in once. But at least we can make a start. Different localities have different amount and it is not a uniform amount because it depends on the proposal and activities which each of the Dorbar Shnong have mentioned,” Sangma said.
Chief Secretary RV Suchiang, and Commissioner and Secretary Vijay Kumar were also present on the occasion.
