SHILLONG:
Governor Satya Pal Malik, on March 4, commenced the Budget session highlighting the work the government has carried out in various sectors including health, education and infrastructure.
In his address on the first day of the budget session, Mallik said the government is making concerted efforts to improve the standard of living of the people of the state through better governance. He stressed that it’s the government’s responsibility to make collective efforts and strive towards socio-economic development and progress in all spheres.
Speaking about the priorities of the government, Mallik said, “Another critical focus is on improving rural livelihoods and promoting enterprises through mission mode interventions in the sectors of Agriculture, Horticulture, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry.”
Speaking on the government’s effort on resource mobilisation, Malik said the state government through the planning department avails financial resources from the North Eastern Council, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Ministry of Tribal Affairs, besides leveraging funds from various agencies under the Externally Aided Projects which include World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Asian Development Bank and New Development Bank.
The Governor further informed that the government is committed to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030.
He said the state has seen an improvement in the performance in term of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as reflected in the India Index released annually by the NITI Aayog.
“To ensure that SDGs are prioritised, the state government has initiated a process of ranking the districts based on the SDG scores and preparing a District level SDG Action Plan to identify the priority areas of improvement and release of Catalytic Fund to the Deputy Commissioners for undertaking measures to improve SDG performance,” he added.
Informing that there are 39 on-going Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) projects with total project cost of Rs 802 crore, Malik said that during the current financial year, the Ministry of DoNER has released an amount of Rs 44.44 crore.
Some of the key projects being funded by NLCPR include Shillong International Centre for Performing Arts and Culture (SICPAC), Intermediate Lane of Rongjeng Mangsang Adokgre road and College of Science and Commerce at Mawphlang and Mahendraganj.
For the SICPAC project, he said that an amount of Rs 31 crores have been released by the Ministry. The physical achievement on the project is approximately 98 per cent and is scheduled to be completed by June, 2022, he added.
The Governor said the intermediate lane of Rongjeng Mangsang Adokgre road from 0-32 km and 39-43 km has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 123 crores.
“The state government targets to complete this project by December, 2022,” he informed.
Malik further informed that under the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), the Ministry of DoNER has sanctioned 10 projects at a total cost of Rs 253 crore.
“The Ministry has also recommended 3 new projects under NESIDS at a total cost of Rs 144 crores, these projects include construction of road from Shillong City to Umroi Airport at Rs 50 crore, improvement including widening of Agia-Medhipara-Phulbari-Tura Road at Rs 66 crore and setting up of state-of-the-art Diagnostic Centre at Tura at Rs 27 crore,” he added.