Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday assured that the proposal to carve out the Shillong Agglomerate from East Khasi Hills as a full-fledged district will be examined against eight administrative benchmarks as part of broader efforts to streamline urban governance. Replying to a short-duration discussion moved by UDP legislator Paul Lyngdoh, Sangma said, “for declaring an area as a district or sub-division, the following criteria are taken into consideration: extent of area, population, distance from the existing headquarters, lack of education and health services, general economic backwardness, public convenience, communication, and availability of funds.”
He said any such proposal must first be placed before a committee headed by the Chief Secretary, with members drawn from the Home, Planning, Finance, Community and Rural Development, and Personnel departments, Divisional Commissioners and other departments concerned. “Therefore, regarding the proposal to carve out Shillong Agglomerate from East Khasi Hills district and constitute it as a full-fledged district, the government will have to scrutinise and examine the matter in detail to arrive at an informed decision for better governance and citizen-centric administration,” Sangma said.