Four Khasi and Garo authors were presented the 1982 literary awards of Rs.2000 and a cerficate of merit each by the Meghalaya Education Minister, Dr R C Laloo, at a function organised by the Meghalaya Institute of Art and Culture here in the city.

The recepients of the awards are Mr E Weston Dkhar, Mr Surendra S Marak, Mr Donbok T Laloo and Mr Tyllibor Dkhar.

The State Government has appealed to the Centre to transfer to the Civil administration all unutilised polts and land leased for commercial purposes within Shillong Cantonment and other Defence Holdings.

In an official note on the necessity to transfer some plots of Cantonment land to Shillong for civilian use, the State Government has pointed out that the Defence authorities have been willy nilly dragging its feet on some of the long pending demands of the State Government in this regard.

The note said: “The Shillong Cantonment is in an enviable positionbecause, with the heavy pressure on the land in the city, it has a large area lying unused. Some of the plots of land have been kept vacant for a number of years and are not likely to be needed for defence purposes in future.”

The State Government has demended release of the following plots: plot of land opposite Anjalee Cinema, plot of land of Anjalee Cinema, Garrison Ground, abandoned firing range at Kench’s Trace, Cantonment land north of Umshyrpi river, right of way of civilian through the Cantonment to the villagers of Umlyngka, Nongkseh and Lummawbah.

The North Eastern Council has sanctioned an amount Rs. 450 lakhs for setting up of an Artificial Limb Fitting Center at the Ramakrishna Mission Hospital at Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. This forms a part of the North Eastern Councils’ programme to extend its help towards the rehabilitation of physically handicapped persons in the North-Eastern Region.

Similar Rehabilitation Centres have been set up by the North Eastern Council at Agartala, Aizawl and Shillong. The Centre at Shillong was approved in August last year at an estimated cost of Rs. 10.60 lakhs of which the North Eastern Council is to provide an amount of Rs. 9.63 lakhs. The balance amount was provided by the Talents Club Shillong. The approved outlay for the current year for the Rehabilitation Centre at Shillong is Rs. 6.07 lakhs.

It may be mentioned here that the total lack of rehabilitation services for the physically handicapped persons in the North Eastern Region was brought to focus during the International Year for the Disabled Persons.

Excepting Assam where a Centre was already functioning, none of the other Units had such facilities. Accordingly the North Eastern Council came forward with a scheme for helping the Constituent Units by setting up Rehabilitation Centres for the Orthopedically handicapped persona t the capital towns excepting Assam at a total estimated cost of Rs. 81.26 lakhs.

The Meghalaya unit of the Bharat Scouts & Guides organized a youth parliament at State Central Library hall on May 13. The Department of Law and Parliamentary Affairs of the Govt of Meghalaya sponsored the programme.

Meghalaya Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr G Mylliemngap stressed the importance of exposing the youth to the parliamentary practices.

The State Law Secretary Mr S N Phukan explained the idea behind holding such a programme, Mr J P Singh, Education Secretary presided over the function. Mrs E N Shullai offered vote of thanks.

The winners of the prizes were: Sarbani Banndyopadhay; 2nd Jacquelin Jyrwa and 3rd Valentine Nongrbi.

The Central had decided to set up two Field Testing Stations with general engineering Testing Laboratories at Gauhati and Agartala.

This information was given by the Secretary of the Department of Industrial Development, Mr S K Bhatnagar in his letter addressed recently to the Secretary of the North Eastern Council. Mr S K Bhatnagar also hoped that the Government of Assam and Tripura would encourage the entrepreneurs to avail of the facilities now being set up in these two places.

Earlier the Secretary of the North Eastern Council, Mr P H Trivedi in his letter to the Government of India mentioned how the entrepreneurs in the Small Scale Sector of the North Eastern Region have been experiencing considerable difficulties in obtaining the I.S.I. Certificates in respect of their products before they could be marketed. While mentioning the delay caused due to the locations of the I.S.I. (Indian Standard Institute) Office at Calcutta, Mr Trivedi strongly pleaded for setting up of a Branch Office of the I.S.I. (Indian Standard Institute) in the North Eastern Region to avoid irritants which act as disincentive to the local entrepreneurs of this region. The setting up of such facilities would promote industrial development in the North Eastern Region, Mr Trivedi added.

The Meghalaya PWD Minister, Mr Rowell Lyngdoh has joined the Congress(I). This raises the party’s strength in the House of 60 to 32. The ruling MDF has 37 members.

The Congress (I) had secured 25 seats in the last general election.

The North Eastern Council has agreed to take up the preliminary investigation of Kynshi Hydel Project in the South Western Meghalaya at a cost of Rs. 98.8 lakhs. The scheme which will be implemented by the Meghalaya State Electricity Board has already been cleared by Electricity Authority. Central Water Commission, Planning Commission and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The first phase of investigation is likely to be completed within 2 ½ years while the complete investigation will take about 6 years. The project report will be prepared after the detailed investigation is completed. An amount of Rs. 10 lakhs has been provided by North Eastern Council for the current year.

The Report on Preliminary Investigation for Kynshi Basin as prepared by the Meghalaya State Electricity Board reveals that the project will generate 500 MW of power in different stages. The projected production in the first stage will be 170 MW while construction cost for Stage-I will be Rs. 113 crores. The cost of generation of per unit of power will be 20 paise which is described MSEB as quite cheap. It may be mentioned here that Meghalaya which is endowed with an estimated power potential of about 1800 MW at 60% load factor concentrated mainly in the river Basin of Khasi and Jaintia Hills has been able to harness so far only 10% of the total potential. The estimate of the potential as worked out by the Central water and power Commission during the early part of 50s shows about 750 MW hydel power at 60% load factor from the basins of the North Umtru Khreih, Umkhen and Kopili while another 1050 MW of power at 60% load factor from the basins would be available from the South flowing rivers of Kynshi Umiew and Umrelong.

Because of the available facilities of communication in the basins of the North flowing rivers investigation works for Umiam-Umtru basin was taken at the beginning of 1950 and till now development of 4 stage in this basin has been completed and another stage in now under execution by the Meghalaya State Electricity Board. The development of the Kopili basin is under execution by NEEPCO.

Although the South flowing rivers of Khasi and Jaintia Hills have tremendous power potential, barring the river Myntdu no other river has been gauged resulting in absence of hydro metrological date. The present investigation as agreed by North Eastern Council would, therefore, go a long way in providing important information about the prospects of further power development in Meghalaya.

The Meghalaya State Electricity Board is of the view that with the taking up of investigation work of some of the south flowing rivers of Meghalaya in a phased manner the power position in the North-Eastern Region as well as in the adjoining eastern region could be improved considerably.

The national agricultural inputs fortnight for Kharif was launched in Meghalaya at different functions held on June 1 at the district and sub-divisional headquarters.

The Fortnight is aimed at creating an awareness among the farmers of the various facilities available to them through the State Govt and also to energies the field works so that the Kharif production does not fall below target.

In Shillong, the State Agriculture Minister, Mr Oris Lyngdoh, while inaugurating the Fortnight at a function at Upper Shillong, stressed the importance of the programme. He said “food economy of the country substantially depends upon Kharif production which accounts for 60% of the total foodgrain production”. This year the total target of foodgrains production was 1.84 lakh M.T. of which 1.74 lakh M.T was proposed to be attained during the Kharif season, he added.

Mr Lyngdoh underlined the paramount need for ensuring that all the vital inputs were made available to the farmers. He also gave details of the various steps undertaken by the State Agriculture Department for helping the farmers in obtaining inputs like modern technology, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides financial credit, irrigation, tools and machinery.

The MSEB had issued the following appeal to its consumers:- ‘Meghalaya was in the grip of severe storms during the month of April resulting in large scale damage and destruction of the transmission and distribution lines and power apparatus installed at various places. These unprecedented storms interrupted the power supply and created inconvenience to our esteemed consumers. With the active cooperation of consumers and dedicated service of the works of the Board, it was possible to restore the power supply at most of the locations, within  the shortest possible time.

The Secretary of the North Eastern Council, Mr P H Trivedi has strongly pleaded for the string up of a Regional Office for F.P.O. (Fruit Processing Order) for the North-Eastern Region with a view to removing the difficulties experienced by the manufacturers of the North-Eastern Region and thus to promote industrial development in the region.

Mr Trivedi in his letter addressed recently to the Secretary to the Department of Food and Civil Supplies. Government of India, referred to the delay in obtaining Fruit Processing Order Certificates by the exporters from the North-Eastern Region because of the location of the F.P.O. Office at Calcutta.

The NEC Secretary also mentioned in his letter how the NEC had been exploring possibilities of increasing the volume of export of processed fruit products from the North-Eastern Region for which there is great potential. He also mentioned that the NERAMAC (North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation) has recently executed export orders of Processed fruit product to the tune of 370 tonnes valued at Rs. 30.50 lakhs and it has now offers for export of about 1200 tonnes worth Rs. 1.20 crores. Meanwhile, the Secretary Food and Civil Supplies Govt. of India, Mr N.K.S. Jhala, has informed the NEC Secretary that a Senior inspecting Officer will be posted at Gauhati on year to year basis during the seasons. The NERAMAC has accordingly been asked to provide space within its office as well as secretarial assistance for the inspecting officer.