Department of Information and Public Relations

Press Release No. 308/22

CM CONRAD SANGMA PATS FOR CLOSER TIES WITH THAILAND TO BOOST TRADE AND TOURISM IN NE

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday said that Bangkok and other South East Asian nations are geographically nearer than India’s capital Delhi, which makes the region suitable for business, trade and tourism. He made the remark while addressing the 2nd North East India Festival, which is currently underway in Bangkok, Thailand. The three day festival will conclude with a display of cultural diversity, music, food and tourism potentials in the North East on Sunday evening. He said that North East India and South East Asian nations can develop strong cultural and economic ties, banking on the similarities of the two region which is diverse in different ways.

The historical bond between India and Thailand is more than 2000 years old. It goes back to the time of King Ashoka in the 3rd Century, BC when Buddhism was introduced to Thailand from India. Buddhism is a common thread that runs through both nations. India bilateral relations with Thailand are rooted in history, age old social and cultural interactions and extensive people to people contacts, he added. Entire North East is geographically much closer to a large number of cities in South East Asian nations. The close proximity of the region with North East and the similarities the region shares with North East will allow the region to explore possibilities which will be to the advantage of both the region, he said, while commenting on better communication between North East and South East Asian nations, particularly air connectivity.

Lauding on the Act East Policy and the political will of the Government of India and the States of the North East, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a lot of thrust on the North East for its economic growth that in turn is slowly bridging the infrastructure gap, which is creating an enabling environment for promoting trade and business ties with South East Asian nations.

I strongly believe that the festival with its focus on People to people exchange would help in unravelling many interesting similarities and shared aspirations of the people from these regions. I am certain that this festival would provide ample opportunities for people to connect. More importantly, the cross-sharing of ideas during the festival would open up a lot of exciting opportunities, he added. He said that the opportunities in the North East should be portrayed to the investors in South East Asian nation, who can expand their businesses and trade relations with States in the North East India.

We as North East together have to come up with policies that would mutually benefit both the regions, he said while adding that Thailand vision to establish mini FTAs in five States in India, including Assam will go a long way in promoting trade ties.

It is evident from the fact that recently the Union Finance Minister announced that the Government of India is implementing various rail, road and air connectivity projects worth USD 17.19 billion in the northeast. India s Act East policy has been complemented by Thailand s Act West policy in bringing the two countries closer, he added.

Press Release No. 309/22

BSNL ORGANIZES HINDI WORKSHOP OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE IN SHILLONG

BSNL recently organized a joint Hindi Workshop of Official Language Implementation Committee in Shillong, Meghalaya. Deputy Director, Official Language Implementation Committee, Ministry of Home Affairs, Guwahati Shri Badari Yadav, who was also one of the Guest of Honors for the workshop, said that the event held a significant role in imparting practical training in order to increase the use of Hindi in day to day official correspondence.

Shri Yadav conducted training sessions during the day long workshop held on July 26 on Importance of Hindi, Problems and solutions for working in Hindi, Hindi Translation, Unicode compatible facilities in Indian languages for Computers and Mobile, Online Filling of quarterly progress reports and Official Language Rules and other associated Hindi implementation works.

Chief General Manager, BSNL, NE 1 Circle, Shillong Shri K.S.Madanpur spoke on the overall development and popularity of Hindi Literature all over the world and the utility of Hindi in Circle Headquarters and their subordinate Offices.

Press Release No. 310/22

MONITORING SURVEY OF CANCER RISK FACTORS AND HEALTH SYSTEM RESPONSE IN MEGHALAYA, 2021 TO 2022

A virtual event for the release of the report entitled Monitoring Survey of Cancer Risk Factors and Health System Response in Meghalaya, 2021 to 2022 was convened by the staff of Population Based Cancer Registry, Meghalaya, Civil Hospital Shillong, led by Dr.W.B Langstieh Principal Investigator, in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research, National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Bengaluru at Main Secretariat building, Shillong on 29th July 2022. The Chief guest during the occasion was Mr. Sampath Kumar IAS, Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Department and Chairman PBCR, Meghalaya. The programme was virtually attended by Dr. Prashant Mathur, Director, NCDR ICMR, PBCR colleagues along with other state dignitaries and partners from the Government and private institutions of Meghalaya. Speaking at the inaugural function Dr. Prashant Mathur called for the need to improve cancer screening and bring cancer care centers nearer to the home of the people. He also emphasized on the need to declare cancer as a notifiable disease in Meghalaya to understand the actual burden of the disease and better collaboration between the government and the Population Based Cancer Registry

Dr. A. Dkhar, Jt. Director Health Services, in his opening remarks, highlighted the fact that cancer is among the top 5 leading causes of death in the state of Meghalaya. In NE Region, non communicable diseases accounted for 58.8 percent of the total deaths while death due to cancer was 9.5 percent, the highest in India according to WHO in its 2018 profile. Dr. Robert R Marak, Epidemiologist Co PI, District Surveillance Officer, IDSP also partook in the event and highlighted the key finding of the survey report. It was highlighted that there is a high prevalence of tobacco consumption smoked and smokeless in the state of Meghalaya and the current percentage of tobacco consumption stands at 52.5 percent. The trend in the age of early initiation of tobacco is 19.2 years. The survey also showed that 80.8 percent of respondents were exposed to passive smoke in the past thirty days. It may be noted that the survey report also highlighted the usage of betel products which has been observed to cause oral submucous fibrosis, a pre cancerous condition that can progress to oral cancer.

Currently, the consumption of non-tobacco betel products among respondents was 72.7 percent of which areca nut consumption was the highest. Some other parameters that need attention were also highlighted in the event such as the mean age of early initiation of alcohol use was 21 years and 10 percent of the respondents were engaged in heavy episodic drinking. Over 60 percent of the respondents consumed preserved salt curated and fermented products. More than half of the respondents 60.7 percent were pre hypertensive, about 21 percent of the respondents had central obesity, 8.3 percent of respondents were overweight, while 1.2 percent were obese. Also, the prevalence of raised fasting blood glucose was 1.7 percent. Health seeking behavior was very low where about 29.2 percent of respondents never had their BP ever measured in life and only 16.4 percent of the respondents were aware of Ca screening for the three common cancers, oral, breast and cervical.

Appreciating the release of the report Monitoring Survey of Cancer Risk Factors and Health System Response in Meghalaya, 2021 to 2022, the chief guest of the occasion Mr. Sampath Kumar emphasized the need to focus on taking preventive care measures for reducing the alarming non communicable disease burden in the state of Meghalaya, particularly cancer. Commending the work of Cancer Registry Cell Civil Hospital, who had worked tirelessly for the survey even during the pandemic, he mentioned that the report has brought out valuable insights for the key stakeholders of the state, particularly for the citizens of the state. He added, although there is a need to improve public health systems in terms of service delivery, there is also a need for adequate citizens participation and cooperation people of the state should also invest time in understanding the causes of cancer, and how actually one can prevent cancer rather than finding solutions for treatment at a later stage.

Addressing the participants, the Principal Secretary said that appropriate counseling must be given to people to avoid lapses in cases. He added, If as a society, as a state, as a system know that a large number of children are smoking and people are in heavy episodic drinking habits, public health awareness must be promoted on these lines to explain that such algorithms will eventually lead to cancer at a later stage. Therefore, he stressed the need to efficiently develop information and communications around these lines and prevent people from falling into the trap of indulging in cancer causing elements and work to reduce the cancer burden in the state. Giving an example of drug addiction or substance abuse which is a progressive disease, it was explained that a minimum of three times consumption of such substances at a young age will lead to permanent addiction, and rarely do such individuals return to normalcy. This is where awareness must be given to the young boys and girls at a growing stage to never try it even once.

It was stated that Meghalaya will focus more on the preventive care aspect for Cancer and based on the report the state will design a program to prevent cancer in the state and allocate appropriate resources accordingly for policy making work. The approach should not only be a clinical cure approach which has been a long followed approach but a preventive care approach. The state is also looking at avenues for valuable research which is being conducted in the country for the early identification and prevention of cancer in the state particularly related to oral, cervical and breast cancer. The forum also requested the research fraternity of ICMR to identify research based preventive care measures that can be taken and applied for screening all forms of cancers as these would be beneficial for a state like Meghalaya. At any given point in time, the registry area has around 1800 to 2000 new cancer cases the target should be to work with a sense of urgency in a similar way to that of Covid 19 and in order to make a dent in the reduction of non communicable diseases, we must prevent cancer.

Press Release No. 311/22

GRAND FINALE OF UJJWAL BHARAT UJJWAL BHAVISHYA, POWER AT 2047 HELD

As part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to celebrate 75 years of India independence, the office of the Deputy Commisioner East Khasi Hills District today held the Grand Finale of the Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya, Power at 2047 at U Soso Tham Auditorium. Shri Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar , Minister PHE Department, Government of Meghalaya graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and Shri D. P. Wahlang, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary and CMD of MeECL as the Guest of Honour.

Speaking as the Chief Guest, Shri Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar , PHE Minister lauded the initiatives and various schemes avails by the power sector of the Central Government and the State Government ensuring that each households throughout the state and the country as a whole will be electrified. The Minister stated that the government is working on correcting all the challenges that the Power department is facing and he also informed that the government through the Power Department has sanctioned more than 300 new transformers to replace all faulty and damage transformers at a village level. He called upon the cooperation of the people to achieve his vision of Meghalaya on becoming a power surplus state in the coming years.

During the programme, a virtual Interactive Session on Bijli Mahotsav was held on a listening mode in which the Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the beneficiaries of power schemes across the country.

Other dignitaries present at the programme were Dr Shakeel P Ahammed, IAS, Principal Secretary, Power, Government of Meghalaya, Smti Isawanda Laloo, IAS, Deputy Commissioner East Khasi Hills District, Shri V. F Desouza, CPSE State Nodal Officer among others.

It may be mentioned that the Bijli Mahotsav is a platform to celebrate the collaboration between the state and the Central Governments and highlight the key achievements of the power sector.

Press Release No. 312/22

GRAND FINALE CELEBRATION OF BIJILI MAHOTSAV HELD AT TURA

The Nationwide celebrations of Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya Power at 2047 under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav which started from 25th July to 30th July, 2022 as Bijli Mahotsav and Energy Day in 773 districts across the country concluded today with Grand Finale celebration. The programme was held at DRDA Hall, West Garo Hills, Tura where Adviser to the Chief Minister, Government of Meghalaya and MLA North Tura Thomas A Sangma graced the occasion as Chief Guest. The programme was organized by the Ministry of Power in association with West Garo Hills District Administration, PGCIL and MePDCL, West Garo Hills, Tura.

Speaking on the occasion, Thomas A Sangma congratulated the officials and staff of the concerned department for their achievement in implementing various schemes of the government for the benefit of the people and for their continuous effort and selfless service by providing electricity to every nook and corner of the region despite many challenges. Citing the incident from one village, he informed that few households in a village which have not been connected electricity due to some reasons, but have received electricity bills since they are under the purview of all census village and he urged everyone to cooperate and try to work out and solve amicably in case any such situation arises in future. Stating that without power supply life becomes a standstill adding that power is part and parcel of our life, he emphasized that uninterrupted power supply is necessary these days since we require electricity for everyday activities in this modern world.

West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner, Swapnil Tembe also urged the citizens to come forward for Solar Rooftop harnessing and advised the department officials to expedite the process of implementation of any schemes in the area. In his keynote address, the Nodal Officer and Executive Engineer, WGH, DD, West Garo Hills Malban R Marak informed that the Bijili Mahotsav is a platform to celebrate the collaboration between the State and Central Government and highlight the key achievements of power sector across the country.

Beneficiaries from Chandigre, Tosekgre, Darechikgre, Buripara. etc while sharing their experiences stated that they have to live in darkness before they were covered under the scheme adding that after electricity connection life became different and has helped children to study their lessons as well as for other daily activities of the people in the village.