In terms of public outreach only the very belligerent can fault Conrad Sangma. From wading into Iewduh (Shillong’s business hub) to travelling into the villages, Meghalaya’s sitting Chief Minister now into his seventh year in office has been relentlessly pursuing his public outreach programmes, spanning the many Blocks in the State, to have one on one meetings with the public and as he says, “to listen and not to speak.” In these meetings the public speak; the officers take note of public grievances and answer their queries as to what is hindering their access to regular water supply; why they continue to suffer from bad or non-existent roads; why power supply is erratic among many other public concerns. If there is any initiative that has brought governance closer to the people then CM Connect is that vital link between those sitting in the Secretariat and District headquarters and the people.
For the longest time, people would come with diffidence, hardly able to articulate their genuine concerns in terms of access to health services or assistance to farmers, especially given the unpredictable weather conditions exacerbated by climate change. For too long governance has been Shillong-centric; now it is moving beyond the city lights to where the heart of Meghalaya beats – its rural and unvisited spaces where people languish in poverty and struggle to bring their products to the markets- products grown with much sweat and tears. The CM’s visit to these peripheries gives him a first hand account of the problems faced by the rural populace and they are legion. Considering that there are a plethora of schemes from the central government such as the Pradhan Mantri Awaaz Yojna (PMAY) where the poor who own a plot of land are given assistance to build a home besides many other schemes. These schemes are created keeping in view the needs of people in the plains. A sum of Rs 1.25 lakh may be sufficient for those residing in the rest of India but not for residents of the hill states where transportation of building materials etc., involves a higher cost. Such problems are articulated by the village leaders and therefore help the CM to understand their genuine problems and to either take up such matters in Delhi or to provide gap funding from state funds. Unless the CM hears such logistical problems upfront from those who suffer first hand he can never understand what it means to be a common man.
Perhaps the only problem with such programmes is that women’s voices are muted. Those who speak for the community are the village elders. Would they actually understand the problems faced by pregnant and lactating mothers who have to traverse over spaces where no roads exist in their state of pregnancy to reach the nearest public health centre? It is also true that at such programmes those who speak are performative – they are playing to the gallery. This needs to be addressed with sensitivity, so that people genuinely benefit from the CM Connect programme.
