Govt to examine on creation of more C&RD blocks

He was reacting to a query on the demand for the creation of a new block at Lumshnong in East Jaintia Hills district in view of the cabinet’s decision to formally shift the Khliehriat Block to Wapung village.

Sangma admitted that there are many locations around Lumshnong and other places in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills as well as Garo Hills where people have to travel for 50 kms to get to a block, through which almost 60-70 percent of the rural schemes are being distributed.

“Therefore, these are very important administrative units and hence the government is examining (the proposals). We will see wherever the blocks are required we will definitely examine and move forward with creation of (more) blocks if necessary and obviously we will also balance it out keeping the financial (of the state) in mind,” he said.

On the other hand, the chief minister also recalled that the sudden decision of the then Congress government to shift the block office from Wapung to Lumshnong village had created a lot of confusion among the people of the region.

He said initially when East Jaintia Hills district was created, the then cabinet had decided to shift the block from Khliehriat to Wapung and the land was given by the people of Wapung village and even the infrastructure development had also started.

“Then suddenly there was a decision at the CM’s level to shift the block from there to Lumshnong. Therefore, this has created a lot of confusion and people were very concerned about the shift and it really complicated the situation,” he said.

Sangma said that the sudden shifting of the block to Lumshnong was something that could have been avoided and not done in that manner.

When asked if the people of two villages were victims of “politics” by the then government, the chief minister however refused to comment by saying, “All I am saying is that there were some complications that were created at that point in time we are just trying to rectify those complications and figure out how we can resolve those issues and we had to take a stand and we took a stand based on the decision made by the past government and therefore, we just trying to correct some of the anomalies and  some of the complication that was created in the past.”

By Our Reporter