Tura Secretariat will function as 'additional' secretariat for people of Garo Hills: Conrad

Shillong, May 27 (PTI) Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday said the Tura Secretariat will ensure that the people of Garo Hills region of the state will not have to travel to Shillong for different official works.

Speaking at a programme at Samanda and Williamnagar, the chief minister unveiled the architectural drawing of the Tura Secretariat and said it will function as an "additional secretariat" for the people of Garo Hills region.

"Initially, the project was conceptualised as a mini secretariat, but the government felt that the infrastructure should be upgraded to accommodate all department offices, chief minister office, ministers office and bureaucrats," he said.

He opined that the Tura Secretariat will ensure the delivery of government services to the people of Garo Hills.

"People from Garo Hills have to travel to Shillong for different official works. The purpose of the Tura Secretariat will be to ensure that people from Garo Hills can easily get their official paperwork submitted for further processing at Tura itself," he added.

The initial cost of the mini secretariat at Tura was Rs 30 crore, which has now been estimated to be Rs 150 crore.

He also said that the Tura Convention Centre will be adjacent to the Tura Secretariat, as displayed in the architectural 3D drawings.

The CM said that the first phase of the Tura Secretariat will be completed by January 2027.

Earlier in the day, the chief minister handed over smartphones to Anganwadi workers at a programme in Samanda in East Garo Hills district.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development had funded Rs 6 crore for the purchase of 6,162 smartphones for the workers, supporting them in their critical roles.

Sangma said the smartphones would enhance the performance and services of Anganwadi workers and "bridge the digital divide and improve service delivery." The chief minister said that the POSHAN App had been installed on the smartphones, which the Anganwadi workers would use to record data and information and perform other reporting tasks, ensuring better monitoring and implementation of social welfare schemes.

The mobile application digitizes the physical registers used by Anganwadi workers, improving the quality of their work while enabling real-time monitoring.

He also said that Anganwadi workers would be incentivized for regularly monitoring the growth of children up to 6 years old by measuring their height and weight and uploading the data to the POSHAN tracker.

During the programme, the chief minister also distributed IIT Innovation ECO H2O Filters to Anganwadi centres, aiming to provide safe drinking water to children in rural communities.

He also inaugurated the new building of St George Higher Secondary School, Samanda, dedicating it to the students and expressing hope that it would inspire learning, creativity, and growth. PTI JOP RG