Cabinet on the move
Cabinet on the move

People of West Jaiñtia Hills district are inquisitive to know as to when the Meghalaya government planning to have its cabinet meeting in Jowai?

Riding on the first success of Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma’s “Cabinet on the Move” initiative, it was announced on June 10 that the next cabinet meeting would be held in Jowai.

Prestone Tynsong, Meghalaya’s deputy chief minister had informed at the Tura Circuit House that the next cabinet meeting would be held at Jowai.

A cabinet meeting of Meghalaya government was held at Tura on June 10, the first one in the state’s history to be held outside the State Secretariat in Shillong.

In the last four months, more than half-a-dozen cabinet meetings were convened by the Meghalaya government.

And, surprisingly, there is no indication on the proposed cabinet meeting in Jowai.

So, people of Jowai are now anxious as to why the Meghalaya government is still silent on announcing the date for the “Cabinet on the Move”.

“We don’t understand as to why the Meghalaya government always overlooks the underdeveloped Jaintia hills district?” a school teacher said.

According to the people, the entire Jaintia hills is the most backward region of Meghalaya as successive governments never paid attention to the needs of the poor tribal people.

Despite political criticism, Tynsong had said the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government will continue to hold cabinet meetings in different districts of the state.

“We thought if the cabinet meeting is held in Jowai, the government would be able to understand our problems better, and would definitely find ways to resolve them,” a teacher of Kiang Nongbah Colege, said.

People of Jowai are of the opinion that the government has been treating Jaintia hills in a step-motherly way, and because of that, there has been no infrastructure development in both districts.

The decision on “Cabinet on the Move” was taken by the Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma for the welfare of the common people.

And the idea was that holding cabinet meetings in different districts would mean taking the government closer to the people.