SHILLONG, AUG 25: The state government is seeking solutions from the citizens for keeping the capital city clean and liveable by recently launching of the “Hackathon-2017” competition. Meghalaya is the first state in the North East region to take this initiative.
The Hackathon-2017 for Clean and Liveable Shillong is being organized by the Clean Shillong Committee (CSC), which was constituted by the state government following the intervention of the Meghalaya High Court into the matter.
Earlier this year, Shillong – the state capital had been lowly ranked at 276 of 434 cities in the recently swachh survekshan survey. It got a cleanliness score of 839 out of 2000.
Addressing newsmen here on Friday, National Informatics Centre (NIC) senior technical director Timothy Dkhar said that the Hackathon aims to elicit ideas and solutions to the problems which the city faces on cleanliness, traffic congestions, and others.
He however said that response from the citizens on the Hackathon, which was launched by the chief secretary Y Tsering since August 16, was not encouraging.
Only five teams have registered so far for the competition, which the last date for registering is due to end on August 31, he said.
“We urged the citizens (including students) to participate in the Hackathon, which the purpose is to engage public participation to help the government alleviate the various problems faced in the city, as registration is still on,” Dkhar added.
Informing that the grand finale of the Hackathon will be held on September 11, he said that participants whose ideas and solutions are found feasible from implementation will be qualified for the grand finale.
The winner of the competition will be awarded certificate of participation and prize money of Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 15,000 for first, second and third respectively.
In a brief presentation about the competition, it was informed that the participants can register for the competition with committee’s web portal at cleanshillong.nic.in. Citizens can select from the various problem statements provided by different departments which include Urban Affairs Department and accordingly come up with solutions.
By Our Reporter
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