Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma announced that Mairang will be the 12th district of the state and to be made functional before August 15.
Speaking to reporters, the CM Conrad Sangma said, "Mairang will be the new district of Meghalaya and because of Covid-19 the situation has been slightly slow but to let the people of Mairang know and feel positive about it that we will do our best to ensure that before the Independence Day the Mairang district in Meghalaya is functional, that will be our endeavour."
On being asked about the demand to upgrade Sohra civil sub-division to a new district, he said a consensus is yet to be arrived in this regard due to issues relating to the geographical mapping. "…because of the geographical landscape and the area of Pynursla and down and the areas across the valley, so the geographical mapping is not coming to a point where we are able to really look at a consensus," he said while informing that all these issues are being discussed and the government will see how to go ahead with this.
Recalling his speech made in Mairang in March this year, Sangma said that he had mentioned that Mairang is at the bottom when it comes to sustainable development goals and the main purpose of doing this was to push the living standard of the people in Mairang and other parts of West Khasi Hills and therefore the need (to create a new district) was very justified.
"Therefore, we decided and announced that we will go as I said that our endeavour will be that we make Mairang district functional before the Independence Day," he reiterated.
According to the Meghalaya Chief Minister, West Khasi Hills has been neglected a lot in terms of the economic standard of the people, the sustainable development goals, and to raise livelihood of the people, the only way to do is to bring administration closer to the people.
