Shillong, Oct 17: The CM-Elevate cheques were distributed to the beneficiaries in Jowai on Tuesday by Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.
The government said it is a testament to the state’s commitment to entrepreneurship and economic growth.
MLAs, Santa Mary Shylla, Wailadmiki Shylla, Lahkmen Rymbui and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) Chief Executive Member (CEM) Thombor Shiwat were present .
According to an official statement, the event symbolises Meghalaya’s vision for economic prosperity with youth empowerment, community solidarity, and environmental sustainability.
“I have always maintained that development is incomplete if every citizen and every community in society and part of our state does not move forward with us together, then the development is incomplete. CM-Elevate is a program for entrepreneurship. In the last five years, we have supported 3000 entrepreneurs in different ways. We have a huge workforce. We have projects for communities, for self-help groups, for sports groups and for anybody who wishes to be an entrepreneur. The Cinema Hall scheme is meant to ensure that every district should have one cinema hall, government should not run cinema halls, government must run government not cinema halls, private sector will run cinema halls and government will support. We should have a very good state-of-the-art convention centre in every district headquarter.”
Economic empowerment of women is important, the self-help group movement is one of the most powerful ways to economically empower our women, he said.
On the YESS Meghalaya program, he said, “The government will give support upto Rs 1 lakh to do your activity. Out of the 1155 youths we supported in the first tranche and the first group in the state, Jaintia hills alone has 389 groups which means in the whole state Jaintia Hills got the highest support from YESS Meghalaya. Almost Rs 1 crore plus was distributed among these groups”, he said.
On the Green Meghalaya initiative, the chief minister said, “Any community, any group, any individual who wishes to protect his or her or their forest cover, Meghalaya government will pay you Rs 15, 000 per hectare to not disturb the forests. We have 40,000 hectares under Protected Areas under the PES program and government has given upto Rs 40 crore as cheque and cash to communities to protect this every year.”
At the program, a total of 37 cheques were distributed, Yess- 17, Self-Help Groups (SHGs) -10 and Green Meghalaya-10.
While the amount disbursed is Rs 4,90,000 for YESS program, Rs 66,00,000 was given to SHGs, and 54,09,058 to PES.
