Meghalaya just bagged a coveted UN award for coming up with an e-proposal system and chief minister Conrad Sangma went to Geneva to receive it. To his supporters, he is the most dynamic and vibrant CM of the Northeast. From tuning into Summer of ’69, fighting fierce political battles, to putting Meghalaya on the international map, he is a man of many facets.
With assembly polls next year, Sangma is in preparation for the battle ahead. He spoke exclusively to News18 about getting global recognition, the challenges that he faced and the tasks that he completed in the past five years, the support received from the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, and the upcoming electoral contest. Edited excerpts:
How does it feel to get this UN award?
It feels very good, makes us proud. It makes our state and country proud because our project, our state, was the only state which got this award from India. We competed against other nations and the competition was very tough and this project is something which we have been working on for a very long time. I myself am from an IT background. I could realise different departments were trying to do different things on their own. A lot of them were trying to develop software. We realised that till they didn’t gel together and came up with a common blueprint that connected all departments, the efforts would not bear fruit. We created Meghalaya architecture heritage…it’s a fancy thing from government to government, government to business, and then to citizens…We started e-proposals, and we enabled the process. From the proposal stage, we wanted everything to be paperless. What used to take 45 days now takes a matter of 24 hours. We are saving time.
It was tough competition. China also participated in it. How will this help in the governance process?
Obviously, it was tough competition. We focused on sustainable development. For the UN, sustainable goals were a big priority and that’s why they took it in this way. It’s a process where everything will be paperless but will not happen in a day. Government-to-government proposals have become smooth. This will effectively go to citizens in time, it will be easy for the public also.
Do you think in the last five years Meghalaya has changed? Next year is the election. Why do you think the people of Meghalaya will have faith in you?
In the last few years in spite of a large number of challenges over Covid and other things, we were very focused on a few principles. Firstly, come what may, we worked on efficiency of the government. Whatever we did, we did with efficiency. We planned everything and it was important to monitor everything from the top. It was monitored by me from topmost level.
There we were at the bottom of the immunisation chart when we took over, and now we are in the top 3; so the same programme but we did it differently.
We were at a point where the Centre was supposed to scrap various projects because of non-completion for the past 15 years; today we are one of the better performing states. We have worked more than five times as before. There were only 4,000 households with water connections when we came. Now we have more than 2 lakh households with water connections.
We had a big issue on MNREGA; Rs 500 crore was the annual expenditure, and now it’s Rs 1,500 crore. In National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) we used to spend Rs 2 to 3 crore, now we spending Rs 100 crore. What we ensured was that the engine should work better. Today we are spending twice as before in the development budget.
We can’t say with elections, it’s the people who will decide. I am sure they have seen our work. I am sure the people will give us a chance. It is not just development, we have given top priority to issues related to farmers and the youth.
What support have you got from the central government?
There was tremendous support. The amount of support that the PM has given to the Northeast should be admired. I am not trying to compare but the type of help which we get from the Centre is tremendous. They send ministers, bureaucrats, and whenever we go to Delhi, we get their appointments, they resolve problems in hours. We are seeing that there is special attention given by the Centre. The states that are doing well, completing projects early, are getting additional funds. For example, we are one of the few states that got a bonus budget as we completed works before time. Last year, they gave Rs 4,000 crore more because of our performance.
Will the NPP fight the polls in alliance with the BJP or go alone in Meghalaya?
If you remember my last interview with you, I said we fight elections on our ideology and alone. Therefore, we will fight alone. We fight for our ideology. We will see after the elections, obviously.
Who is your main opposition: Congress or TMC?
See, the opposition is divided, and that is always good for us. You had a strong Congress there. The departure of Mukul Sangma and others has weakened the opposition, which builds up a strong narrative for the government. That builds up a natural advantage for us.
Elections are never easy, so we will take everything very seriously. I don’t take things for granted and therefore we will work very hard.
For me, all opposition parties are important; every candidate is important. We should not be overconfident.
Abhishek Banerjee is coming to the state. What’s your take?
He has the right to come and organise. TMC also has faction problems.
Are TMC MLAs in touch with you?
They may join but I will not tell you right now. They are in touch.
Your government has faced allegations of neglecting environmental issues…
Mining is an issue. We have to balance. We cannot neglect the economy; there are challenges.
The important part is to have balance there. The government should have the right policy. It’s not that we are not doing anything. We are trying to have a balance between economy and ecology.
We have started an innovative project for ecology. Meghalaya is showing the way.
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