Shillong, Sept 1: What started last month as a simple lunch has evolved into a new way for the East Khasi Hills district administration to listen to people from different sections of the community.
Deputy Commissioner Abhilash Baranwal said the initiative is aimed at getting unfiltered feedback from the community, building trust and helping the administration understand concerns that may not always reach the government through formal channels.
The initiative has so far hosted six editions of “Lunch with DC”, bringing together school principals, traditional headmen, religious leaders, social media influencers, startup owners and people who have recovered from drug dependence.
The idea is straightforward: bring the administration and community stakeholders together in an informal setting and allow the conversation to take its own course.
There is no fixed agenda for the lunches.
Participants are free to raise issues they consider important, share their experiences, voice grievances or talk about their aspirations.
The setting, meanwhile, remains deliberately ordinary—rice, dal, naan, two curries and salad, rather than a formal conference table.
The initiative also seeks to bridge the gap between how an issue is perceived by the government and how it is experienced by people in their everyday lives.
Some of the discussions have already highlighted concerns that may not necessarily feature prominently in official meetings.
The menace of stray dogs, for instance, emerged independently during two separate interactions—one with headmen and another with religious leaders.
The latest and sixth edition, held on August 31, brought together office-bearers and members of the Meghalaya Drug Users Network, with discussions focusing on substance abuse in the district and the wider state.
Participants shared their experiences of drug dependence and spoke about discrimination and social stigma faced by people who use drugs, gaps in post-rehabilitation support, and the role of community and religious organisations in recovery and reintegration.
The administration and members of the network agreed to continue working together towards a more coordinated and empathetic response to the issue.
For the district administration, the lunches are essentially a listening exercise—an opportunity to understand what people themselves consider their most pressing concerns and to bring those perspectives into the administration’s response.
Through these lunches, the approach has brought a range of voices to the same table—and, in the process, given the DC a less formal but potentially more useful window into the concerns emerging within the community.
Also Read: NPP to seek amendment to 1950 Presidential Order to review genuine tribes in Meghalaya: Prestone
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Source: https://hubnetwork.in/over-lunch-east-khasi-hills-dc-seeks-a-closer-connect-with-the-community/