Meghalaya AITC wants NEP implementation halted

Staff Reporter

Shillong, Aug 30: Opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) today demanded that the implementation of the new National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 should be withheld in the State of Meghalaya.

Speaking to reporters, AITC state president Charles Pyngrope said that rethink has to be done on the NEP otherwise it will be detrimental to the future of the students.

“Yesterday, I spoke to one of the former principals of the St Edmunds College and he said you have to have experts to discuss this. This will affect the academic career of the students. Rethink has to be done on this policy and experts should be put (in place),” he said.

“And I believe that the government of Meghalaya has got a state education commission and there are some good people. They should give ideas, and opinions. Till that time it (NEP) should be withheld,” the Nongthymmai legislator added.

SDRF recovers mortal remains of landslide victim

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) recovered the body of the last victim of the landslide tragedy at Ryngngain in East Khasi Hills District on Sunday.

The body identified as that of late Krejunlang Khongjirem was trapped under the rubble of rocks and soil following the landslip incident which occurred last Friday.

The SDRF were pressed into action following a call from District police on Friday evening about the landslip incident at Ryngngain. On reaching the spot they were informed that 9 occupants who were sitting in the passenger vehicle had sustained minor injuries and were taken to Pynursla PHC.

However, another vehicle with 2 (two) occupants inside was knocked down off the road and had fallen into a deep gorge.

SDRF personnel were first able to recover the body of late Seiborlang Jaktung, the driver of the vehicle, in the afternoon of 15 April 2023 and with the help of local villagers they were able to bring back the body at around 2100 Hrs approximately and handed over the body to the police.

Two teams of SDRF personnel were deployed for the recovery operation at Ryngngain East Khasi Hills from the force headquarters at Mawdiangdiang.

The SDRF personnel worked in close cooperation with the local residents at Ryngngain to recover the bodies of the occupants of the second vehicle.

The recovery operation of the SDRF ended with the recovery of the second victim on Sunday.

2nd round of border talks likely in May

Meghalaya and Assam are likely to start the second round of border talks next month for finding an amicable solution to resolve the remaining six areas of difference between the two states.

Informing this today, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, “Sometime in the month of May, we will try to initiate the first round of discussion or continue the next round of discussion of border talks. Let the time come, I expect that maybe in the month of May we will be able to see the next phase (of border talks).”

On March 24, the state government reconstituted the three Regional Committees to examine the present status of the remaining six areas of differences and submit their reports within 45 days.

The six areas of difference include Langpih in West Khasi Hills District; Borduar, Nongwah-Mawtamur, Deshdoomreah, Block-II in Ri Bhoi District; Block- I, Psiar – Khanduli in West Jaintia Hills District.

The two deputy chief ministers – Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhalang Dhar – will head the regional committees for Ri Bhoi District and West Jaintia Hills District respectively while cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh will be the chairman of the regional committee for West Khasi Hills District.

Resolving border issue & ILP implementation to be top agenda, says Conrad Sangma

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 6: National People’s Party (NPP) National President and Chief Minister designate Conrad K Sangma today reiterated his party’s commitment to resolve the border issue and to aggressively take up with the Centre for implementation of the inner line permit (ILP) in the state.

“Of course, our objective would be to resolve the border issue within this five years or much earlier than five years,” Sangma told reporters after taking an oath of office and secrecy as re-elected legislator of South Tura.

On his government to take up issues related to ILP and the inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, the CM designate said, “Absolutely, these commitments will remain. These are commitments we have made in the past”.

Spelling out his government’s priorities, Sangma said creating a large number of job opportunities will be one of top priorities in the next five years.

“Whether it is the IT sector, in the last five years, we have managed to open a 3,000 seater call centre and BPO IT Park. Our intent within the next five years is that we should open more than 20,000 seats if not we already have sanctioned 5,000 more seats. I am not saying we can do it but it is my target and goal that at the end of this term we should have 20,000 -25,000 seats of the BPO sector in our state,” he added.

The NPP leader also said that he wanted to push the tourism sector in the state adding “because I strongly feel that tourism is one area which we can really work on. There are small ways in which we can create small avenues for livelihood and that’s going to be a big focus for us.”

“We feel value addition in agriculture is something very important and if done in the right way a lot of opportunities can be created in those areas. Of course, we have a very strong sense towards our health sector and education sector. We need to continue strengthening that as these are very complicated sectors and require a lot of investment,” he said while adding that another focus would be on the social sector and infrastructures.

He said that the MDA-I government had done a lot in the last five years in terms of road connectivity and water connectivity.

“I hope we are able to saturate things in the next five years where we will ensure every household gets the water tap connection and ensure every village is connected in terms of road and every house is connected in terms of power – all these our goals and objectives are there. We will be working out details of the economic programmes in the next few days,” he stated.

On the scams alleged by political opponents, Sangma said that the word ‘scam’ has been given by the people who made the allegations against the government.

“So allegations are there but the word scam is not the correct nomenclature to use. It is allegations made by individuals and other political parties as I said we have been transparent in the entire process. Whatever the opposition has demanded in the past we have gone ahead and done that,” he added.