SHILLONG, July 31: Chief Secretary Donald Philips Wahlang on Thursday called upon officials of the aspirational Ri-Bhoi district and three aspirational blocks to step up efforts for improving ‘key performance indicators’ (KPIs) to meet the 2025-2026 development targets.
While Ri-Bhoi is the only aspirational district in the state, Umling, Resubelpara and Amlarem have been designated as aspirational Community and Rural Development blocks.
Speaking at the ‘Sampoornata Abhiyan Samman Samaroh’ felicitation ceremony at the Raj Bhavan, Wahlang acknowledged visible progress in Ri-Bhoi. He, however, expressed concern that out of the 49 KPIs, only three have reached saturation.
“There’s still a long way to go,” he said, urging Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner Abhilash Baranwal and the Block Development Officers to intensify efforts, hold regular reviews and stay focused to ensure saturation across indicators.
Highlighting immunisation as a low-hanging fruit, Wahlang noted that while coverage has improved significantly from 34-35% to 93-94% over the past seven years, full saturation is yet to be achieved. He expressed the hope that both the district and the blocks would soon achieve complete saturation in immunisation and other sectors.
He further noted that many indicators have crossed the 90% mark and stressed the importance of achieving saturation in those areas by next year. “There should be more balance. Instead of only three indicators saturated, the number should be closer to 30,” he said.
On the performance of the three aspirational blocks, the Chief Secretary said only one indicator—distribution of soil health cards based on soil sample collection—has reached saturation across all three blocks. Umling has also saturated the indicator related to the number of self-help groups receiving revolving funds.
“There’s much more to be done,” he said, urging a systematic and team-oriented approach to ensure success within the next year.
Reflecting on the event, Wahlang said the felicitation was meant to celebrate achievements and acknowledge the dedicated efforts of the district and block-level officers, as well as frontline workers.
“The commitment of DCs, officers and frontline staff over the past three months has set new benchmarks for administrative excellence in Meghalaya,” he said.
He praised the coordinated and result-oriented approach. “If we can achieve this in aspirational areas, there’s no reason we can’t replicate the same success in the entire state,” he said.
The event was attended by Governor CH Vijayashankar, Director General of Police Idashisha Nongrang, Principal Secretary Sampath Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary Joram Beda among others.
