Shillong, Oct 12: Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh said on Thursday that a fruitful meeting was held with leaders of the Shillong All Faiths Forum (SAFF) concerning the fight against drug menaces in the state.
Leaders from SAFF attended the meeting, which was held at the Secretariat in the minister’s chamber.
Following the meeting, Lyngdoh informed that in their last interactive session with all stakeholders, including SAFF, the idea behind the meeting was that various religious institutions wanted to actively support the efforts of the government of Meghalaya to contain and sensitise people, especially about the dangers that await them if they are involved in drug menaces.
The social welfare department, along with SAFF, has decided that they will come up with a tentative calendar of activities starting on December 5.
“We propose to have a day long seminar and awareness program involving students of class 10 up to class 12, on drug menace and menace of drug trafficking in the state. There will be resource persons from department like social welfare, police and religious heads,” mentioned Lyngdoh.
He added that this will be just how they kickstart the efforts, and after that, they will sustain these interactions by having these calendars of activities. “We will not only confine ourselves to Shillong but also cover other areas, especially the hotbed areas. Government alone will not able to curb the drug menace in the state without active support of civil society,” added the social welfare minister.
The faith leaders discussed the idea of having regular intervals of drug awareness.
The government has also authorised secretary of SAFF Robert Majaw to coordinate with the department of social welfare and they will reach out to various schools who will send their children to participate in this seminar.
