Meghalaya Assembly Speaker wants approval of new dome design expedited

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 13: Assembly Speaker Thomas A Sangma has asked the Public Works Department (Building) to speed up getting the approval of the new design for the dome of the new Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang.

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“I have already instructed and requested the PWD (Building) to expedite approval of the new design without which the work cannot start,” Sangma told reporters after conducting an inspection to the construction site today.

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Stating that the progress of work is satisfactory, the Speaker however said, “The middle portion which is the main chamber –where the dome had collapsed – that part is still not started, otherwise the left wing and the right wing (of the new Assembly building) are almost completed.”

“80 percent of the works are already completed but we can’t have an Assembly without the main chamber. There is a new design of the dome which has to be vetted and approved by two Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) – IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati. So we are waiting for their approval of the new design,” he said.

Sangma also informed that he is also in the process of reconstituting the High Powered Committee (HPC).

The dome of the under-construction new building of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly had collapsed on May 22, last year.

When asked, the Speaker said the implementing agencies have been asked to remove debris (caused by the dome collapsed) by April 15.

“That was the only deadline we have set today because without which the work cannot start and without the approval of the new design work cannot start. Only when the work starts then we can set a timeline (for completion of the new Assembly building),” he added.

On the allegations of corruption in the construction of the new Assembly, the Speaker said, “Such allegations of corruption have not come to his notice. If there is any I can assure you that my office will be very transparent in this regard and we will try our best not to have any kind of allegation…we will try to be transparent as much as possible.”

He assured by saying, “I would look into this but just based on somebody (allegation) or without any written complaint or without any proof or evidence, I cannot just go about kind of taking unnecessary things out in the open. I will certainly look into it but as I told you earlier it has not come to my notice yet but if it comes if I feel that there is some kind of misconduct or something unusual I will certainly look into it.”

Admitting that the Assembly has been functioning from a temporary building for several years, the Speaker said that he would like to see the new building of the Assembly completed during his time.

“I feel that I should be able to step into that new Assembly during my time. I don’t know there are so many things. This is the only first phase. There will be a second phase which will include the staff quarters, the minister’s quarters, speaker’s residential quarter, MLA hostels, hospital, school,” he said while informing that they have decided to push the government to also start the second phase simultaneously side by side.

NextGen Democracy representatives at NEHU, Shillong for mutual learning

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 13: Under the aegis of Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) a delegation of 38 youth leaders from eight countries such as Chile, Kenya, Ecuador, Mexico, Suriname, New Zealand, Nigeria visited North-Eastern Hill University with a purpose of mutual learning and interaction with NEHU faculty and students.

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The Office of International Affairs (OIA) of NEHU held the meeting cum interaction to felicitate these foreign delegates from eight different countries who are part of a mission called “NextGen Democracy” and paid a state visit to NEHU to share their experience of democratic processes and struggles in their respective countries with NEHU fraternity.

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The Vice-Chancellor presided over the programme and felicitated the visiting dignitaries. Dignitaries included Member of Parliament from Suriname, Kanafe Josafat Obed who represents African origin people in Suriname parliament and expressed his pleasure at NEHU’s hospitality and the level of discussion. Another prominent public figure included Norbert Andrew Ouma of Kenya, who is a grassroot politician shared his rich experience of being a footballer and a grassroot level party builder. Another significant voice from Chile, Maite Estay, who is the spokesperson of Chilean Confederation of Students showed her solidarity and empathy for women’s role in public life in a democracy as well as in leading the university in research and studies. Another noted political personae from City administration of Cuenca Under the provincial government of Azuay of Ecuador expressed her desire to explore Shillong and Meghalaya and found quite a few learnable things in her brief visit to NEHU. In a similar vein, Aryana Nafissi, a prominent opposition leader and tax consultant from New Zealand expressed her deep interest in India’s democratic processes and exhorted NEHU in making rapid strides in understanding global democratic scenario by way of creating leadership.

Deans of Schools such as Prof. Erwa Jyrwa, Prof. Lucy Zehol, Prof. Vanlalnghak, Prof. A.K. Chandra, Prof. N. Saha, Prof. Iftekar Hussain felicitated visiting dignitaries and exhorted them for a future collaboration and trust building. Prof. Debendra K. Nayak, seniormost Professor of NEHU felicitated dignitaries from Nigeria and Mexico and expressed his deep interest in academic and cultural bonds that exist between India and visiting dignitaries. Prof. Don Syiem too felicitated visiting Nigerain dignitary and exhorted the need for building trust and partnership.

The Vice-Chancellor of NEHU appreciated the role of Government of India under the able leadership of Narendra Modi in exposing youth to democratic processes across the globe and he expressed the hope that NEHU and Northeastern region shall be able to make the best of such cultural exchanges.

In his response, Purav Kumar Bhailal Panchal, an Indian origin Swiss citizen and educationist wanted to know about NEHU’s curriculum in Educational Sciences and sough collaboration in educational research from Govt. of India and Govt. of Switzerland. Some other foreign delegates wanted to know NEHU’s facilities on studying music and performance, to which Prof. Desmond Kharmawphlang responded positively and implored the interested foreign students to join NEHU’s programmes of study.

Prof. Prasenjit Biswas, on behalf of Office of International Affairs thanked profusely the delegates from eight countries and impressed upon them NEHU’s advantage in highest standard of research and learning at very low cost and invited students and researchers from Latin America, Africa, Europe to join NEHU in large numbers.

The visiting team left for Mawsynram and Sohra after completion of their visit to NEHU.