Department of Information and Public Relations

Press Release No. 412/19

CHIEF MINISTER MEETS DCS AND OTHER OFFICIALS OF GARO HILLS REGION

Meghalaya Chief Minister, Shri Conrad K Sangma today convened series of meeting with all the Deputy Commissioners of Garo Hills region, officials of NRLM and Transport Department at Chief Minister’s Office, Commissioners’ Building, West Garo Hills,Tura in the presence of Adviser to the Chief Minister, Shri Thomas A Sangma and Commissioner of Divisions, Garo Hills Region, Shri P Sampath Kumar.

During the meeting, Shri Sampath Kumar briefed the Chief Minister about the strategy, structure and other activities including formation of Self Help Groups in the villages which is being undertaken under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) which aims to reduce poverty by building strong institution of the poor by organising women Self Help Groups so as to enable poor households to access self employment and skilled wage employment opportunities to improve their livelihood on a sustainable basis. He also mentioned that teams have been selected to visit the villages for formation of SHG groups and to ensure that all SHGs should have bank account and bank linkage before 31st March 2020. So far there are about 6,000 SHGs in Garo Hills region, he said.

Stressing on women empowerment in the region, the Chief Minister said that many of the women SHGs of the region have no idea about financial inclusion and have not availed any loan so far, therefore, he directed the concerned officials to sensitize the people about financial inclusion to the SHGs and to motivate them by sharing the success stories through photos, short inspiring videos and to explain the concept and basics of the program in a simple way so that they understand the objective since people find it difficult when all the necessary information are given at a time. The officials of NRLM appraised the Chief Minister about the challenges faced during their field work and said that while some villages are willing to join, few others are apprehensive towards formation of SHGs in the area for which the Chief Minister had directed all line departments, Block staff to assist for SHG mobilisation in their respective areas.

Hills Ram Kumar highlighted the interventions on the status of education scenario in the district and informed that a mobile app has been used to check the schools and students and is also trying to find out the Bottom 20 from the schools while with respect to Class X students, coaching class is being held every Saturday so as to monitor their preparation as well as completion of the syllabus for appearing the SSLC examinations, he said. Further, all the Deputy Commissioners’ from the Garo Hills informed that most of the schools in villages have no science and mathematics teacher which makes learning difficult for students especially while pursuing higher classes. Further, the Chief Minister had instructed all the Deputy Commissioners’ to identify and establish a Model Village in their respective district before December 2019 and to begin with they can either start with smart classroom with basic and minimal amenities including solar panel, smart TV, low cost rain water harvesting, etc, he informed adding that starting with small budget and completing the work is better than making big proposals which needs more time for approval and implementation.