SHILLONG: Two legislators have asked the state government to create civil sub-divisions in their respective constituencies.
MLA Brening A Sangma on Wednesday said Dalu should be a civil sub-division.
Congress’s HM Shangpliang too came up with a similar request for Mawsynram after the House was told that the government was examining the case of Dalu.
“Civil Sub-Division is a long felt need of the people of Mawsynram,” Shangpliang said. To this, Speaker Donkupar Roy replied, “It is a question hour and not request hour.”
A query was also raised by Congress MLA PT Sawkmie on the number of civil sub-divisions in the state. To this, Home Minister James Sangma listed the eight names — Mairang, Amlarem, Sohra, Pynursla, Dadenggre, Chokpot, Raksamgre and Mawshynrut.
Sawkmie also put up a question on the money involved for these civil sub-divisions, to which the home minister said, “It depends on the location and areas which differ from place to place.”
“The dead storage of the Umiam reservoir below MDDL is 39.47 million cubic metre which corresponds to a sedimentation rate of 17.8 hectare metre/100 sq.km/year,” he added.
The studies conducted by M/S Tojo Vikas (India) Private Limited revealed that the volume of sediment collected in the reservoir over 39 years (from 1965 to 2004) works out to be 20.551 million cubic metre, which corresponds to a sedimentation rate of 23.79 hectare metre/100 sq.km/year.
Sangma added that as per the study, dredging of the Umiam Reservoir “does not appear to be an attractive proposition”.
As per the report, the dredging is proposed for 2.17 million cubic metre, which is only 1.53 per cent of the live storage capacity of the reservoir.
The report stated that the cost of dredging even of the insignificant volume of 1.53 per cent of the live storage will involve a cost of about Rs 41 crore at the rate of Rs 189 per cubic metre (2004), which is not economically viable.
