Development / Meghalaya

SHILLONG, April 2 — The North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) Ltd, a Central public sector undertaking headquartered in Meghalaya, was working towards timely completion of ongoing projects, its chairman-cum-managing director S Sharma has said, reports PTI. Addressing an annual general meeting of the association of engineers here on Saturday last, Sharma expressed hope that the Corporation would take up more projects to solve the unemployment problem in the region.

Meghalaya Home Minister R G Lyngdoh lauded NEEPCO’s efforts for developing power situation in the region and exuded...

Shillong, March 31: The Scotland of the East could soon become the hottest herbal-cure destination in the country after Kerala. Thirty Meghalaya-based practitioners of traditional medicine will exhibit their skills here tomorrow and validate their claims about the medicinal value of certain plants that are abundantly available in the state.

“Practitioners of traditional medicine have accepted the challenge to prove that the best cure to many diseases is natural therapy. We will probably see some of the evidence tomorrow,” Besterwell Kharbuli, a scientist at the North Eastern Biodiversity...

SHILLONG, March 25 — Only 11 tribes belonging to the State of Meghalaya will be eligible to buy land in the State once the Meghalaya Transfer of Land (Regulation) Act, 1971 is amended, Chief Minister DD Lapang said today.

Describing the proposed amendment as “high sensitive” and “debatable”, Lapang informed the Meghalaya assembly that it is the intention of the government to prune the number of tribes eligible to buy land in the State from the present 54 to only 11.

Under the proposed amendment only the Khasi, Jaintia and Garos and also the indigenous Hmar, Baite, Karbi, Lalung (Tiwa), Rabha...

SHILLONG, March 19 — All export operations to Bangladesh from Assam and Meghalaya have been suspended from March 17 in the wake of the abduction of a customs officer and six exporters by suspected NDFB and PFLM militants on February 28 last from Ghasuapara in South Garo Hills.

Commissioner of Customs DD Ingty told newsmen in the evening that the decision of suspend operations will affect the lucrative Rs 200 crore annual export from Meghalaya alone.

“We have informed the Meghalaya Government that the customs authorities have been constrained to suspend the exports from the land customs...

Shillong, Jan. 28: Meghalaya is reeling under an acute power crisis which threatens to plunge the state into long periods of darkness.

Over the past couple of weeks, Shillong and the major towns of the state have been experiencing power failure at intervals of 20 to 30 minutes throughout the day.

MeSEB officials attributed the power crisis to the breakdown of the 60-MW stage IV power station at Umtru and the non-availability of adequate power from Central sector grids.

?It will take at least four months for the stage IV plant to be re-commissioned. Till then we will have to continue load...

Shillong, Dec. 20: The agitation against uranium exploration and mining in the West Khasi Hills as well as some parts of the East Khasi Hills has been revived.

Several non-governmental and voluntary organisations have demanded that “all exploration work should stop once and for all”.

The Heritage and Environment Status Preservation Organisation (Hespo) and the Meghalaya People’s Human Rights Council (MPHRC) today released a booklet entitled Dangers of Uranium at the Shillong Press Club.

Hespo convenor P.B.M. Basiawmoit told newsmen that the booklet would be distributed all over the Khasi...

SHILLONG, June 27 ? Meghalaya PWD minister Admiral Sangma Tuesday informed the State Legislative Assembly that all efforts have been going on to restore the road communications between Shillong and Dawki which remained cut off since June 16 due to heavy landslide triggered by heavy rain, reports PTI. Replying to a call attention motion of K K Dakhar, Sangma said it will take another two weeks to restore the communication. He said arrangement has been made to tranship the passengers by introducing bus services on both sides of the landslide spot. He said about 60 metres of the road at Riat...

SHILLONG, June 27 ? With the exception of certain pockets, the entire State of Meghalaya is wet but only for Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). In a peculiar contradiction, brewing, selling and drinking of locally distilled brew is illegal in the State where drinking is a tribal custom since time immemorial. The matter came up for serious debate in the Meghalaya House Thursday during discussions on a cut motion on a demand for grant. Moving the cut motion, BJP member and former Home Minister TH Rangad said, ?everybody knows that the local brew is being produced, sold and consumed despite it...

SHILLONG, June 26 ? Meghalaya, the only power-surplus State in the North East is likely to run up a shortage of 100 MW of power during the current year. The fear was expressed by Power Minister M N Mukhim during the question hour in the State Assembly today. The situation has turned so critical that only seven of the industrial units given clearance to start production at the Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) at Byrnihat are getting power from the Meghalaya State Electricity Board (MeSEB) at present.

SHILLONG, May 2 ? Meghalaya was better placed in comparison to other north-eastern States in developing Information Technology, Meghalaya Information, Technology Minister Cyprian Sangma said, reports PTI. Inaugurating a one-day workshop on E-Governance and community information centre ( CIC) project here for State Government officials, Sangma said this was due to the fact that Meghalaya was the centre for education in the region. ?Besides it has sufficient power and a conducive climate for the development of Information Technology,? he said. The State Government, he said was committed to...