Shillong: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, inaugurated the P.A. Sangma Fellowship for Legal and Policy Research at the Yojana Bhawan here on Tuesday with the concept of having fellowship and research-based policymaking, that he said had “been missing” for a very long time.
“Though we have bureaucrats and legislators we are not experts in a number of minor details that are very important for proper law making and the larger goal is to ensure that the people are put first by this unique collaboration from the Judiciary and the Legislative side for the larger interest of the people,” he said.
Sangma also said that if there is research-based policymaking there will be a better framework to ensure that the system as a whole work and to do that there is a need to build capacity for everyone.
“This programme is part of the larger goal in order to make sure that the system as a whole improves and the capacity of every individual improves,” he added.
Talking about his father, late PA Sangma, the Chief Minister said he was a person with a very tall personality and with a diverse background in Law, Journalism, Teaching and Politics.
“He was a person who had an understanding of Law and had experience both in the Judiciary as a person who had been practicing Law himself and had experience in policymaking as a Legislator after he entered politics so it is only befitting that this fellowship programme is named after him,” he added.
Law Minister James K Sangma said that the launch was also the realization of the vision of seeing the boosting of the governance and student engagements as well as capacity-building exercises of the officers of the State.
“Although Meghalaya is small there are socio-economic challenges, challenges in streamlining public services, on ensuring representation and participation and most importantly the challenge of catering governance to the people in a just, timely and impartial manner,” he observed.
