SHILLONG, MAR 13: Governor Tathagata Roy said the government is focussing on enhancing the service delivery in health and education sectors and to make larger investments in physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, power and drinking water supply.
“Another critical focus is on improving rural livelihoods and promoting enterprises through mission mode interventions in the sectors of agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and animal husbandry,” Roy said in his address while highlighting the key priorities of the MDA government during the first day of the Assembly’s Budget session here on Friday.
Stating it is a constitutional mandate to make collective efforts towards socio-economic development and progress in all spheres, he said the government is also making concerted efforts to imporiving the standards of living of the people of the state through better governance.
Speaking on the government’s effort on resource mobilization, Roy said the largest source of state’s revenue is the share of central taxes.
He said the Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC) has recommended the devolution for the year 2020-21. “
We are happy the FFC has acknowledged our performance by way of recommending an increase in our share of central taxes from 0.645% to 0.765%, translating to about Rs 6,542 crore for the year 2020-21,” he said.
Besides the grants from the Centre, he said the state government is also mobilizing its own resources through various revenue enhancing measures.
He said Meghalaya is the first state in the North East and second in the country to implement the enterprise architecture (MegEA), which is designed to ensure a holistic transformation of services through common e-platform.
According to him, it will connect all departments through the use of technology to achieve transformation of its services that will be more efficient and effective and will provide easy accessibility to the citizens.
In order to strengthen the state’s financial management system, Roy said e-billing has been adopted under GRAS portal and almost all the departments have been taken onboard and an extension of the treasury counter has been initiated for online submission of bills and during 2019-20 over Rs 300 crore was disbursed through DBT mode of PFMS for 3 lakh beneficiaries.
Under the North Eastern Council (NEC) schemes, an amount of Rs 79.95 crore was released during the year 2019-20 covering the secotrs of Agriculture, AH & Veterinary, Power, Water Resources, Tourism, PWD, Transport, Sports & Youth Affairs, Arts & Culture, C&RD, PHE, Cooperation and Commerce & Industries.
The NEC has also sanctioned four inter-state road projects between Meghalaya and Assam under the North Eastern Road Sector Development Scheme (NERSDS) during 2019-20.
These include Mukroh-Umpspar linking Jrikyndeng road for Rs 58.01 crore, Lakhipur-Abhirampara connecting Agia-Medhipara-Tura road at 19th Km, West Garo Hills for Rs 46.14 crore, upgradation of 9th Mile to Umsen via Killing Pilangkata road for Rs 84.01 crore and Rymbai-Bataw-Borghat-Borsora-
At present, there are 38 on-going NLCPR projects with total project cost of Rs 782.45 crore and the Ministry of DoNER has released Rs 408.99 crore.
Under the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), the Ministry of DoNER has sanctioned 6 state projects at a total cost of Rs 174.80 crore and has also released a total amount of Rs 24.23 crore.
Of the 6 projects sanctioned, work has started for 2 water supply projects including Greater Sohra (Cherrapunjee) Water Supply sanctioned at Rs 24.81 crore and laying of new feeder mains under Tura phase-I & II Water Supply Scheme sanctioned at Rs 34.74 crore.
The governor further informed that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has also approved a total of 18 projects for grants under Article 275 (1) amounting to Rs 57.82 crore and 16 projects under special central assistance to tribal sub scheme amounting to Rs 49.8 crore.
Project approved include improvement of government school buildings, infrastructure for tourist sites, mission lakadong and jackfruit, upgradation of Baghmara civil hospital, improvement of facilities in government hospitals, renovation of stadiums etc.
He said two Eklavvya Model Residential School (EMRS) was approved during 2019-20, one each in Dambo-Rongjeng block in East Garo Hills and Laskein block in West Jaintia Hills at Rs 24 crore each.
He said in addition to the resources availed from the central ministries, projects part funded by different multilateral and bilateral development agencies like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) JICA etc in the form of externally aided projects (EAPs) are also being implemented.
The Community Led Landscape Management Project (CLLMP) with a total cost of Rs 393.6 crore was launched in May, 2018 with financial assistance from the World Bank. Under this project, community natural resource management plans (CNRMP) are being made in 383 villages across the state.
The Meghalaya Integrated Transport Project is another EAP funded by the World Bank with a total project size of Rs 984 crore. It is an inter-disciplinary, multi-secotral & multi-departmental project to address the problem of transportation in a holistic manner.
The major components of the project include construction of roads and bridges especially the state’s major districts roads (MDRs) and the state highways (SHs) including road connecting to places of tourist interest, focus on last mile connectivity, interventions such as community-built roads, footbridges etc, ropeways such as the Shillong view point ropeway project, the Umiam lake ropeway project and the Nokrek Peak ropeway project.
The other interventions under this project will consist of feasibility studies/physical construction of heliports and their viability, studies on inland waterways, urban mobility studies and various other studies.
The roads being constructed under this project are upgradation of Bajengdoba-Resubelpara-
He said besides the three EAPs, a new EAP called community based forest management and livelihood improvement at a total cost of Rs 869.82 crore has recently been finalised with JICA funding support.
On the education, the governor said two new professional colleges (under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan –RUSA) have made 60 per cent progress while infrastructure grant has been provided to 15 govt and govt-aided colleges whereas 20 govt and govt-aided colleges are covered under Equity Initiative.
Stating that model degree colleges are being constructed at Patharkama and Rongjeng, he said, “Government has also taken up the responsibility of taking higher education to the doorsteps of rural population through People’s Colleges which are to be managed by local community.”
Coming to the health sector, the governor said the government is committed to provide affordable and quality health care to all the citizens of the state.
He said the government through the Megha Health Insurance Scheme is providing financial aid to all the citizens of the state at the time of hospitalization to reduce the out-of-pocket expenses. The scheme covers up to Rs 5 lakhs per family and more than 15 lakh beneficiaries have been enrolled under MHIS with an enrolment percentage of about 54.8 percent. According to him, efforts are made to cover all citizens under the scheme.
He said there has been improvement in few health indicators over the past few years. “Deaths due to malaria have reduced. Institutional deliveries are increasing and maternal mortality rate has been decreasing. Full immunization is on the rise leading to reduction in infant mortality,” governor said while informing that all efforts are being made to improve full immunization coverage.
By Our Reporter
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