The Meghalaya government has laid the foundation stone for a mini secretariat at Patharkhmah in Ri-Bhoi district, bringing offices of the Patharkhmah Civil Sub-Division together on a single campus and reducing the need for residents to travel between government offices.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma laid the foundation stone at the Western Ri-Bhoi Football Ground on Monday. He said the facility was intended to make government services more accessible by allowing citizens to complete related work in one visit rather than travelling between separate offices.
“The mini secretariat will bring the offices of the Patharkhmah Civil Sub-Division together on one campus, so that a citizen can complete related work in one visit, instead of travelling between offices,” Sangma said, according to the report. “People should not travel for hours or days for a govt service and a modern and responsive administration should come closer to the people.”
The mini secretariat is part of a set of public facilities inaugurated or initiated in the area. A new block office was inaugurated at Jirang by football athlete Ribansi Jamu in the presence of the chief minister. The new buildings of Patharkhmah Senior Secondary School and Patharkhmah Model Degree College were also formally inaugurated.
The Jirang Community and Rural Development Block was established on March 24, 2001, with its headquarters at Patharkhmah. Its office serves as a primary government contact point for many families in the area. The block administration is involved in planning and monitoring rural roads, housing, water supply, livelihood programmes and village-level development works.
The new Patharkhmah Model Degree College is the first government degree college in Ri-Bhoi. Established on May 25, 2022, under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, the college is affiliated with Captain Williamson Sangma State University and offers undergraduate arts courses.
The college campus has separate hostels for boys and girls, with 60 seats each. With the senior secondary school and degree college located next to each other, students from Western Ri-Bhoi will be able to continue from school to undergraduate education without leaving the area, the chief minister said.
The college is expected to serve students who previously had to move to Nongpoh, Shillong or Guwahati after completing Class XII. The report said that travel, accommodation and food costs had made higher education difficult for many families.
The government has sanctioned Rs 3.5 crore for a 0.91-kilometre approach road to the college, along with three parking areas. Work on the road project is currently under way. The next stage for the mini secretariat will be the development of the proposed single-campus administrative facility for the Patharkhmah Civil Sub-Division.
