‘Every Minister to visit each district every 3 months’

A Correspondent
SHILLONG, April 13: Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma today said that every Minister in his cabinet will visit each district of the State every three months to review the various Government schemes.
Replying to the debate on the Budget on Friday, Conrad said that during the visits of the Ministers to the districts they will meet the officers of each department, district authorities and citizens.
“Public hearings will be held to engage the people and understand their problems,” the Chief Minister said.
He also said that the Department of Programme Implementation and the Chief Minister’s Office based on the reports from such public hearings will improve on the governence.
Seeking to allay fears of the officers in the Government, Conrad said that such evaluation was not being done to target any individual but only to improve the working of the Government.
He also informed the House that the start-up policy of the Government will be out in the next few months.
The Chief Minister said that the State Government will make policy where there will be a system in which the entrepreneurs will do things on their own.
“We would want to avoid being in business and would want the entrepreneurs to take the lead,” Conrad said.
He also told the House that incubation centers will be set up in the State.
Startup incubators are institutions that help entrepreneurs to develop their business, especially in the initial stages.
Incubation function is usually done by institutions which have experience in the business and technology world.
Incubator support includes providing technological facilities and advices, initial growth funds, network and linkages, co-working spaces, lab facilities, mentoring and advisory support.
As early stage mentors, incubators are an important part of the startup ecosystem.
Meanwhile, on the issue of plastics choking the towns of Meghalaya, the Chief Minister urged the citizens of the state to change their mindsets and join hands to have a cleaner Meghalaya.
“Not only rules and fines (imposed by authorities) which will keep our surroundings clean but ultimately there should a change in the mindset,” Conrad said.
To manage wastes, he suggested the introduction of waste management that is prevalent in Alappuzha, a town in Kerala which had switched over to the decentralised system, an idea of managing waste at the source.
In this particular town, plastic and other non-degradable wastes are segregated at the source and delivered to the respective units.
While the kitchen waste can be deposited in public aerobic bins, the plastic waste is separately collected once a month by the municipality officials from the units or households and handed over to private parties for recycling. Plastic waste can also be given to the State Government’s Clean Kerala Company which sells it to factories in other States.
The waste deposited at the aerobic compost plants in public places is converted into organic fertilisers and distributed to the public free of cost. Each unit, comprising two bins, processes 2,000 kilograms of waste and convert the same into fertilizer within 90 days.
Biogas plants, both portable and fixed, were installed in households, with 50 percent subsidy from Government agencies.
Hotels, vegetable markets, wedding halls were asked to have their own plants or make arrangements to entrust their waste to recognised private service providers.
Conrad also informed the House the State Government was looking into the possibility of building roads with plastic waste technology.  
Recently, construction of a one km road using plastic waste technology in Nongkynjang village of West Khasi Hills was completed.
“If the technology works, we will push it further,” the Chief Minister said.