Meghalaya to enhance service delivery in health, education sectors: GovernorShillong, Mar 20 (PTI) Meghakaya Governor Phagu Chauhan on Monday said his gov'

Meghalaya Governor Phagu Chauhan on Monday said his government is focused on enhancing the service delivery in health and education sectors and making larger investments in physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, power and drinking water supply. Further, the governor said that his government has taken measures to comprehensively improve the educational infrastructure at the grass-root.

Meghalaya Governor Phagu Chauhan on Monday said his government is focused on enhancing the service delivery in health and education sectors and making larger investments in physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, power and drinking water supply. Amid the walkout by the Voice of the People's Party (VPP) MLAs in protest against the governor’s address in Hindi, Chauhan highlighted the key priorities of the MDA 2.0 government on the first day of the Assembly's budget session.

“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,” he said. Stating that it is the government's responsibility to make collective efforts and strive towards socio-economic development and progress in all spheres, he said the government is making concerted efforts to improve the standard of living of the people of the state through better governance.

Speaking on the government's effort on resource mobilization, the governor said, “I am happy to state that the taxation department has made significant progress in collecting revenue for the state. By the end of December 2022 Rs 1,078.25 crore and Rs 429.84 crore have been collected under GST and Non-GST components, for 2022-23. The departments of Excise, Registration and Stamps are also making efforts to increase the revenue collection.”

Informing that steps are being taken to start scientific mining, Chauhan said prospecting licenses have been allotted to 17 applicants out of which four have obtained the approval of the Ministry of Coal for the geological report for preparation of the mining plan adding it is expected that the mining leases will be granted soon. He informed the House that the government has successfully executed the business correspondent model aimed at delivering banking services to the last mile.

Through this, about 600 new business correspondents have been deployed, in addition to the 1,100 existing business correspondents, who are successfully providing banking services even in remote villages, he said. Claiming that the state has made tremendous progress towards achieving universal health coverage and improving access to quality health care services, Chauhan said 109 health facilities are being renovated and 19 are being newly constructed to ensure the well-being of the people at the grassroots.

He lauded the MOTHER program launched to track and monitor pregnant women to tackle the challenge of high maternal mortality and infant mortality rates where over 2.2 lakh mothers were supported since its inception. Further, the governor said that his government has taken measures to comprehensively improve the educational infrastructure at the grass-root. Infrastructure upgradation of about 1,885 schools has been taken up on priority. The government has also enhanced the salary of ad-hoc teachers by up to 50 per cent, benefitting about 10,000 teachers. This will have an additional financial implication of Rs 81 crore annually

. Asserting the importance of a reliable power supply, Chauhan said that the first phase of Ganol Mini Hydro Electric project was inaugurated and commissioned in January 2023. With this, the state has a total installed capacity of 363.70 MW generating about 1,100 MU of energy annually.

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