Shillong: CM Conrad K Sangma said the fight against drugs must include providing young people with positive alternatives, while also urging efforts to steer children away from mobile-phone addiction.Sangma inaugurated the Sewa Inland Drug Reduction Elimination and Action Mission (DREAM) Rehabilitation Centre at Gambagre in South West Garo Hills on Tuesday. The centre is the first govt-supported rehabilitation facility in the Garo Hills and the 15th in Meghalaya.CM said DREAM Mission, launched on June 26, 2023, was the only dedicated state mission in India focused on tackling drug abuse and had brought convergence to previously fragmented efforts.He also launched the state’s first comprehensive SOP for rehabilitation centres. The SOP seeks to establish minimum standards of care and accountability across govt and non-govt centres, covering admission and discharge, documentation, counselling, safety, staff responsibilities and the dignity of people undergoing rehabilitation.Emphasising the need for libraries and productive activities for young people, Sangma directed that Tura district library be upgraded with better infrastructure to create a vibrant, child-friendly space that encourages reading among children and youth.“If we don’t give our youth positive avenues for engagement — in libraries, sports, music and community activities — they will find engagement in the wrong places. A library is not just a building with books; it is a space that can save a child from mobile addiction and substance abuse,” the chief minister said.He said the govt would replicate the model across districts by converting libraries into youth-engagement centres.
