SHILLONG, Jan 27: Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma said the state government has been able to mobilise Rs 7,500 crore from external agencies.
Addressing the 73rd Republic Day celebrations held at the Polo Grounds on Wednesday, he said the funds will be for projects in tourism, water catchment area, natural resource management, road construction, integrated transport system, early childhood development programme, and many other such programmes.
“The state has its own revenue of close to Rs 3,000 crore while its share on central taxes is of over Rs 5,000 crore. But we need additional funds for infrastructure, development and different economic growths. So, we realized that we need to tap the external agencies,” Sangma said.
He said the state government’s expenditure has gone up to Rs 14,000 crore from less than Rs 9,000 crore in 2018.
“In four years, it has almost jumped by 40%. It (management of expenditure) has been possible because of mobilization done through external agencies and the implementation of the projects, timely implementation and submission of UCs, getting money from Central government and running the centrally-sponsored schemes in the most efficient manner,” the CM said.
Pointing out that the celebration of 50 years of statehood is truly going to be special, he said the government will, within this year, inaugurate 300 projects, including the new Meghalaya Assembly building which has been pending for nearly two decades.
Admitting that there have been many instances of communal violence in the past, he said, “One or two individuals might be involved in these incidents but as a society, we must see what we can do to change these one or two individuals.”
He said the government will come up with scientific mining licences within this year.
According to him, the government had taken a decisive step in 2019 to challenge the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban and was successful in lifting it.
“And now, we are in the process of ‘just’ transition where we are ensuring that mining is done in a scientific manner, respecting the environment, the system and the people,” Sangma said.
He said the border issue has been critical for the state and its people.
“In the last 50 years after getting our statehood, we were not able to resolve the border issue. Many governments tried, many CMs have done their best and I do take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them for their efforts,” the CM said.
He said after coming to power in 2018, the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) realized that there is a need to look through different lenses in order to resolve this issue and accordingly, the process was initiated.
“We started the process by telling Assam that let’s not come to the negotiation table with positions. And when I say positions, I mean this is Meghalaya and this is Assam. If you have already come with that mindset and with that position, then the discussion is over before we start,” he said.
“So, we ensured that we stick to our interests, not positions. And it is with this mindset today that we are close to solving the problem in six of the areas. We will work to ensure that the issues in the remaining six areas are resolved based on similar principles,” Sangma added.
Meanwhile, he said the MDA had to face many challenges when it took over in 2018. “We had a lot of problems with law and order, militancy. We had a situation where mothers were giving birth to children without any professional help. Fifty percent of the mothers were giving birth to their children on their own, in their homes. We had 40% children who did not receive any immunization,” Sangma said.
Stating that there are over 28,000 pregnant women in the state at any given time, he said he is happy that the government now knows each one of them.
“Out of these 28,000 pregnant women, we can now actually tell you that 10-15% are high risk mothers. Because of this monitoring, our institutional deliveries have gone up from 50% to 85%,” the CM said.
There was a time in 2018 when not a single flight landed in Shillong.
“It was a big challenge because the entire mountain had to be cut. Huge investment had to be made because without that the instrument landing system would not work. We took the bold decision to invest the money, chop off those mountains in order to ensure that connectivity improves to Shillong,” Sangma said.
Now seven flights and more than 300 passengers are coming to Shillong every day from different cities due to the steps taken by the government, he said.
Earlier, the CM unfurled the Tricolour and took the Rashtriya Salute of the seven marching contingents.
The tableau of the PHE department and District Swachh Bharat Grameen won the first prize while the tableaus of the Social Welfare department and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department won the second and third prizes respectively.
The winners of Police and Fire Service medals for meritorious service and the Governor’s medal were also announced.
The healthcare workers were presented with a citation in recognition of their contributions to the fight against COVID-19.