<span style="color: black;">Meghalaya joined the rest of the country in celebrating the 74th Independence Day where Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma hoisted the tri-colour at Polo Ground, Shillong.<br />'' <br />''Unlike previous  years due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the celebration was limited to only a few activities. This included participation of marching contingents from the Meghalaya Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Meghalaya Police Radio Organization and the brass band of the Border Wing Home Guards.<br />'' <br />''During his speech, the Chief Minister congratulated health workers and other frontline workers for being able to manage the COVID-19 crisis. He said the State is among the lowest COVID impacted States in the country in terms of number of cases per million. The State now has 12 testing centres and has scaled up daily testing capacity to 1000 RT-PCR, the Chief Minister mentioned. <br />''<br />''<br />''He further highlighted various steps taken up by the Government of Meghalaya and others including the village management committees to contain the spread of COVID-19.<br />'' <br />''He informed that the Chief Minister's Task Force on the Economy was constituted to recommend reforms to rejuvenate the economy in the short, medium and long-term and based on these recommendations the Government will launch 'Restart Meghalaya Mission'.<br />'' <br />''The Chief Minister said the Mission is a series of programmes to support farmers, entrepreneurs working in different fields and sectors. An amount of Rs 14,515 crore will be spent over the next three years for the Mission and out of the amount Rs 7,839 crore have been earmarked for this year, he added.<br />'' <br />''He further noted that the State government is promoting various other schemes and projects which include National Rural Livelihood Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana besides others. The Chief Minister said that the State government is also leveraging on the Jal Jeevan Mission and targeting to provide functional household tap connections to 5,89,000 households in the State by 2022.<br />'' <br />''Later, the Chief Minister honoured 71 health workers who contracted COVID-19 by giving citations in recognition of their service to the State. The 74th Independence Day celebration was also held in other districts across the State.</span><br />