SHILLONG, JAN 21: On the occasion of the 44th year of statehood, Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma said he is optimistic that in about 10-15 years the government will be able to eradicate the ‘problem of poverty’ saying that the programme undertaken by the government is enough to bring transformation in the state.
“After 10 – 15 years, there will be no reason for our people to be poor provided we execute the programmes already embarked by the government,” Sangma said.
He also said, “These programmes are enough to transform state and create opportunities for the people to come out of poverty.”
Sangma was addressing a function organized to mark the 44th Meghalaya Day celebration held at the U Soso Tham auditorium on Thursday.
Stating there are number of initiatives undertaken to address issue of poverty, Sangma said, “Therefore it is time for implementation and execution.” According to him, the problem of poverty and backwardness are still the biggest challenges confronting the state and its policy makers.
In order to achieve the objective of ensuring the state is capable of creating that environment where its citizens have a ‘sense of wellbeing’, Sangma urged, “We have to insulate ourselves from temptation of ‘corruption’ and ‘self-centric’.”
Sangma emphasized the need to ensure that the state does not fall into a debt trap and the problem is not passed on to the future generation.
Sangma was of the opinion that the state has to be managed in such a way that its fiscal health should not be the reason for people to have sense of hopelessness.
“Therefore with this in mind, the state government has been able to bring down the fiscal deficit to below 3 per cent from the statistic of five years ago which was at 6.7 per cent. This shows that we have been able to take care of our fiscal health and we are moving ahead,” Sangma said while adding efforts are being made to get more funds.
Stating that the state is looking to celebrating its 50th statehood, Sangma said, “We need to prepare ourselves to tell the people where we are as a state today so that they have reason to have hope,” adding “It is time for us to move with sense of optimism to generate hope for the people particularly the youths.”
Stating that as leaders, one cannot be pessimist, which will only generate sense of insecurity among the citizens, Sangma said, “We should learnt from past experiences and accordingly realign our actions for a better future.”
Meanwhile, the chief minister also proposed that the story of how Meghalaya achieve its statehood and the role of the leaders who agitated through peaceful movement should go beyond the boundary of the state and north eastern region.
“This story should not be confined to the state but it should go beyond the boundaries of the north eastern region,” he said while pointing out that in the pretext of fighting for aspiration, people tend to indulge in killings and create an environment which results in inflicting suffering to the people of the region.
He said, “This day reminds us that you don’t have to pick up guns to achieve your aspiration and objective because there is already a way shown to us by our leaders, and the way is the power of a peaceful movement.”
Asserting it is important to realign our action which will be in sync with those objectives, he said, “It is time for us to utilize this wonderful opportunity and ensure that original objective of those great leaders fructifies.”
Earlier, the Meghalaya Day Excellence awards were also presented by the chief minister to the government officials and employees of the different departments.
Various activities which include singing competition, flower competition and others were also organized to mark the celebration and prizes were accordingly distributed to the winners.
The chief minister also launched the e-district services in the six districts of the state during the occasion.-By Our Reporter
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