Amit Shah To Attend 73rd Plenary Session Of North Eastern Council In Shillong

Guwahati language : Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma, who heads a high-level task force on north-east tourism, said union home minister Amit Shah will attend the 73rd general body meeting of the North East Council (NEC) scheduled to be held on June 4.

Informing that various working groups formed by the Ministry will present their visions for the development of the northeast, Sangma said that he will present the working group report to the delegation. It will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of north-east tourism, suggest ways to strengthen it and package the region as a tourism destination. “I will chair the tourism working group and we will make a presentation tomorrow. We will talk about how the Northeast as a whole represents a potential market for tourism,” Mr. Sangma said.

The NEC has constituted task forces for various sectors such as youth, infrastructure and commerce and discussions will be held in the plenary session to be chaired by union home minister Amit Shah.

Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jyotiraditya Scindia, chief ministers, governors and senior officials of eight northeastern states will also be present at the meeting.

“I hope that we will have various consultations and engagements on important sectors. DONER Minister has constituted a task force for different sectors for the North East and wants states to work together,” Mr. Sangma said.

In his presentation, Mr. Sangma is likely to highlight the tourism potential of individual states and highlight the advantages of packaging the region as a whole rather than individual states working on their tourism sectors.

It is important that the tourism industry in Meghalaya has been booming over the years and some success stories from Meghalaya and also from different states are likely to be depicted during the presentation so that they can be specifically replicated in other states.

Efforts will also focus on addressing key sectoral weaknesses in some states, particularly in communications, infrastructure, trained manpower and finance.

Meanwhile, after the NEC general meeting, union health minister JP Nadda is also expected to visit the state capital on June 5 and union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to visit the state capital later this month.