TURA, March 29: In a moment of pride for the state, the West Garo Hills district won two awards at the 3rd National Water Awards in the national capital on Tuesday. The awards were presented at the Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
The awards were presented to a team led by Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills, Ram Singh, in the presence of Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekawat, Minister of State for Jal Shakti & Food Processing Industries Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State for Jal Shakti and Tribal Affairs Bishweswar Tudu besides officials from the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
The district won the second and third prize in the country for its community-led water conservation, afforestation and water harvesting projects.
The projects that bagged awards were in the village of Aminda Simsanggre, which bagged the second position, and Chambagre winning the third position. These were undertaken in convergence of CLLMP, a World Bank Project, MBMA and MGNREGS, including their own contributions. The two villages were placed second and third in the ‘Best Village Panchayat – North East Zone’ category.
Along with the DC, other members who were present at the function were District Project Manager, MBMA DPMU-CLLMP Tura, Sitaram Prasad Sah, Secretary, Aminda Simsanggre Village Community Resource Management Committee (VNRMC), Gambegre Block, Pretish Sangma, District Project Manager, MBDA/MBMA, MLAMP, West Garo Hills, V Valentine Hembrom, and NRM Secretary, Chambagre Village, Selsella Block, Riksin Marak.
They were joined by Piyush Dogra, team Task Leader and Environmental Specialist, World Bank, New Delhi.
The two award-winning projects were funded by the World Bank and IFAD and supported fully by the Government of Meghalaya.
