Eastern West Khasi Hills becomes Meghalaya’s 12 district

MAIRANG:

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma officially inaugurated the 12th district of the state - Eastern West Khasi Hills - at its headquarters in the Mairang subdivision, on November 10.

The Chief Minister along with Mairang MLA and Assembly speaker Metbah Lyngdoh, cabinet ministers, and other dignitaries attended the inaugural programme of the new district.

Hundreds of people gathered to witness the historic event at Tiehpdang in Mairang. As the locals in the new district celebrated the historical day and were happy with the government’s decision, the government maintained that the creation of the new district will ensure a closer connection between the administration and the people for the implementation of various government schemes.

As an independent administrative unit, projects implementation will become more effective, Sangma said.

Many organisations, however, had sought the intervention of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma for reconsidering the renaming of the newly created district, over which the CM maintained that many meetings and consultations were held on the same, and everything was taken into account before arriving at the name.

He also asserted that the bringing adminstration closer to the people and bringing development in the area are the key objectives for the creation of the new district.

“It was sad to see that people were more interested in commenting about the name than really giving suggestions on how to make the district better. It is easy to criticise and put a small post on social media. You need to understand that much more needs to be done than a simple post to make difference in the lives of people,” said Sangma.

It may be mentioned that the Meghalaya cabinet on November 5 had approved a proposal to upgrade the Mairang civil sub-division to a full-fledged district named the ''Eastern West Khasi Hills'' district.

Notably, the West Khasi Hills district was initially carved out of the erstwhile Khasi Hills, it was divided into the East and West Khasi Hills district in October 1976 with an area of over 5000 sq/km and 4 constituencies of Mairang, Mawthadraishan, Nongstoin, and Mawshynrut having a population of over 3 lakhs.

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