It may be the second poorest state in the country but Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma promised today that Meghalaya would rise up the rankings in the next five years.
Sangma said this in reaction to a recent report by NITI Aayog that placed Meghalaya only ahead of Bihar in terms of development, with the state doing badly across a range of measurements.
Explaining the results, the CM said that Meghalaya faces a huge number of challenges and the government’s actions in the last five years (during his first stint as Chief Minister) have been towards changing this.
“It has not been easy for the state and, yes, we have been lagging in the last 45 years but we have been trying to change and are working to improve,” Sangma said. “It is only by accepting (our result) that we can take things forward and we need to look forwards and see how we can make a difference and change things.”
The government will give a detailed look to the NITI Aayog report, he added.
Stating that Meghalaya has seen some progress, Sangma noted that Meghalaya was once ranked 27th for vaccination but is now in second place and that maternal mortality has been brought down by nearly 50 percent.
“It is a procedure and things do take time. It is not easy to carry the momentum. Apart from financial challenges, there are also systematic challenges that we are trying to change and, slowly and steadily, the process is being changed,” he said. “We will surely jump in the rankings but things take time and I am sure in the next five years there will be a huge improvement in numbers.”
