National People’s Party chief Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday renewed the focus of Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA 2.0) Government towards the social sector’s improvement like health, education and social welfare.
Spelling out his top priorities on being sworn in as chief minister, Conrad K Sangma said, “We have laid the foundation in the last five years for many sectors and we will continue to work aggressively on those foundations and build a better state for our people.”
“We will continue to focus on the areas which we are working in the last five years primarily to ensure that the overall infrastructure improvement is there. We are working very hard towards the social sector’s improvement like health and education and social welfare. Of course we are giving a lot of importance to the youth especially when it comes to employment issues and livelihood issues. So those are going to be the main concerns and areas where this government is going to focus on,” he added.
Asserting the need to further improve the overall delivery mechanism and overall efficiency at the grassroot level, Sangma said, “We have improved that in the last five years. The same schemes which were implemented in the previous year’s did much better in the last five years because the accountability, the monitoring that we did will continue to ensure that the impact at the grassroot level of different programmes and schemes is felt to the maximum level.”
Asked on his decision to have 2 deputy chief ministers, Sangma said there has been a precedent in the past and there is nothing wrong in it. “In fact, it is a strong representation of the different regions of the state and it sends a positive message of ‘inclusiveness’. That is the reason why we have gone ahead with it,” he added.
The chief minister further informed that he would distribute the portfolios among the cabinet ministers within the next 24 to 48 hours.
On the alleged illegal mining and transportation of coal in the state, Sangma said, “Of course we have always maintained that and we will ensure that steps are taken to ensure no such activities that are there should take place.”
He assured that scientific mining of coal will start in the next couple of months. “It is already in the process. We have worked very hard in the last five years. We have seen that now we are almost on the verge of four different groups that have now received the clearances and their mining plan should be cleared in the next couple of months and post that we expect scientific mining will start in the state.”
With regards to the pending issue related to the relocation of the Sweepers’ Colony from Them Iew Mawlong, the chief minister said the government is going to work towards it.
“The committee has been working very hard in the last five years. We will see how to move forward and carry everybody along and come to an amicable solution,” he said.
He also assured that his government is committed to resolve the remaining six areas of difference with Assam.