Staff Reporter

Shillong, July 20: The state Cabinet has approved the proposal for acquiring 50 acres of land for the development of tourism infrastructure at Nongmahir Lake in Ri Bhoi district.

After chairing the meeting, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters that the government will spend Rs 10 crore for the purpose of acquiring 50 acres of land.

“This is being done to increase the overall land bank with the state government so that tourism projects can take place,” he said.

“And we all know that this area Nongmahir Lake is very beautiful and very scenic with huge potential for tourism and hence with this procurement of this land, we will be able to take up tourism projects in this area,” Sangma added.

He said that construction of a resort besides different kinds of tourism-based activities will be taken up.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 10: Minister in charge of Public Health Engineering (PHE) Marcuise N Marak today said he would aggressively monitor the implementation of funds sanctioned by the central government for providing drinking water to the people of Meghalaya.

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After chairing his first meeting with the top officials of the department, Marak told reporters that they have apprised him of the position of the department and that he has decided to immediately review the functioning of the department on Saturday.

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The PHE minister said that the state has been getting funds from the Government of India, which is investing to provide drinking water facilities in the state while asserting that this needs to be implemented properly so that for the next 30 years the state will not have any problem.

“Therefore, I will monitor aggressively and I will personally inspect the projects wherever the projects are being constructed and I will make sure our Meghalaya state in terms of PHE department whatever money the central government is giving is implemented properly,” he assured.

On the issue of scarcity of water supply, Marak said, “I will try to find out what is the reason behind the scarcity. Of course, as you are aware most of the catchment areas are drying up. Maybe because of that also scarcity is there. Otherwise, if the department is having problems in bringing water to the people, if that is also there I will check and ensure it is implemented properly.”

He also assured to ensure proper implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission which is to provide functional water taps to every household in the state.