SHILLONG, Oct 15: Meghalaya government is seeking Rs 600 crore financial support from the Centre for strengthening and improving the overall functioning of the social welfare department.
Informing this recently, minister in-charge Social Welfare department, Paul Lyngdoh said that he has reviewed the functioning and funding position of the directorate and the interventions, which is required to be taken by the state.
“Certain matters will also have to be taken to the cabinet, certain matters will also have to be taken to the five ministries dealing with our department here in Meghalaya,” he said.
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“The additional interventions would include more funding from the ministry. We have projected a deficit of about Rs 600 crore. There is also a need for us to improve the service conditions of the employees here. Alot of them are working on a contractual basis and it’s a lot of hard work. They have to stay over, those who are on the night shift. So things like that. We will try to enhance facilities for them so that they would be able to optimise the services that we can offer,” Lyngdoh added.
The minister also reviewed the functioning of the women and child helplines at the office of the Directorate of Social Welfare.
Emphasizing that not everything that is happening in Meghalaya is negative, the minister said, “There is a lot of positivity. There are a lot of highly motivated young men and women, working tirelessly to serve the society and it’s an incredible story when we hear that women facing domestic violence, for instance, get immediate attention and support, our intervention as a department.”
The minister then said, “We will need to further strengthen the department, ensure that where cases take longer than they should take, those will be corrected and once we integrated their information system with the secretariat, I will be in a position to see the data flowing on a daily and we can then take corrective measures in such cases.” (NNN)
