Two oldest districts in Meghalaya soon to have a ‘Mini Secretariat’

SHILLONG

The Meghalaya Government has decided to construct a Mini Secretariat in all the eleven districts of the state, starting with West Garo Hills and West Jaintia Hills - the two oldest districts in the state.

“We have taken this decision to construct the Mini Secretariat at Jowai and Tura to bring (the) administration closer to the people,” Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong told reporters on Friday.

While clarifying to the opposition of the Synjuk Waheh Shnong for shifting the office of the PWD Executive Engineer, North Jowai Division, from Jowai to Shangpung, Tynsong said that they made the decision since they are planning to construct the new office of the West Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner in the premises which houses the office of the North Jowai Division.

"This will also be known as the Mini-Secretariat," Tynsong said.

“We wanted to house all the department in the district in the Mini Secretariat. The people will benefit since they will do their other official work in the same building if they have come for some work in the Deputy Commissioner’s office,” he said.

According to Tynsong, there is no parking space in the present DC office in Jowai since it is near Iawmusiang market, which is the biggest market in the whole Jaintia Hills region.

"A majority of the government offices in Jowai are operating from privately rented houses," he said.

He also informed that they would hand over the land which house the PWD Jowai North Division office to the PWD (Building) for preparation of the DPRs, design and estimates of the proposed Mini Secretariat.

“We hope that the construction of the Mini Secretariat will materialise soon,” he added.

With this decision, the North Jowai Division will also be renamed as Shangpung Division.

(Edited by Christopher Gatphoh)