Shillong, March 17: The state Cabinet on Friday approved the Governor’s Address for the upcoming Budget Session of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, which will be the first budget under the MDA-II government.
After the meeting, cabinet minister and MDA government spokesperson Paul Lyngdoh said the Governor will address the newly constituted House on Monday, being the first day of the Assembly’s budget session.
“It will not be fair for me to share today (the Governor’s Address) then it will be redundant on Monday but we have covered very significant points including the areas of focus of the government, infrastructure and critical areas where we are going to stress on,” he said.
He informed that the cabinet had discussed issues concerning the Mukroh incident and steps that have been taken by the government as part of redressing the issue.
“We made a mention of the dispute between Assam and Meghalaya and we commit to resolving the remaining six areas of difference in a manner that will be fair peaceful and to the advantage of the citizens of both states,” he said.
Further, the spokesperson informed that peace talks with the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) have reached the final stage.
“We made a reference to talks that are ongoing with the HNLC which are coming to a point of closure very soon,” he said.
Stating that government is going to take the drug menace as a serios threat, Lyngdoh said, “We will go all out on a war footing to combat drug trafficking in all forms.”
“And in fact the seizures from contraband has gone up to 71 crore as we speak and police have been put under very high alert to go all out against drug traffickers of whichever calliber. We will not miss out on the small guys or on the big ones and there will be no compromise when it comes to raids, seizures, checking of illicit of drugs of any varieties,” he added.
He also informed that the government has already created five new fire and emergency stations, nine new outposts, five new police stations and seven border outposts.
“The next part of the governor’s address deals with agriculture and farmers welfare, animal husbandry… But basically it is a growth oriented direction that we are taking and we will try to optimize our resources, central funds and externally aided funds for all of these projects. More importantly, the focus is on the youth, arts and culture. These are fundamental and you will be hearing the details once they are finalized and place on the table of the house,” he added.
He further said tourism will achieve due regard and importance and it will be sustainable, employable, employment generating, community participant, technology driven and synergy with other schemes.
“We will also augment the power generation and as we speak we are also trying to mitigate any possibility of disaster in the light of sudden change of weather, frequent strong winds. Those are the major areas covered by the Governor’s Address,” Lyngdoh added.
