Staff Reporter

Shillong, Sept 21: BJP legislator from South Shillong Sanbor Shullai today urge the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to take suo moto cognizance of the threats issued by the All Assam United Motor Transport Association to stop transportation of goods to Meghalaya.

In a statement, Shullai said, "The recent and widely publicized statements by All Assam United Motor Transport Association threatening to stop the transport of all goods to Meghalaya, including daily essential items are highly objectionable and deserve to be strongly condemned. Such a step goes against the centuries old bond shared by our people, breaks the spirit of brotherhood amongst Northeast states."

"I would request the honourable chief minister of Assam and also the NEDA chief convener shri Himanta Biswa Sharma that the Assam government should take Suo motto cognizance of such threats which adversely affect the lives of common people," he added.

Shullai said that such contentious matters need to be amicably resolved between both the associations. An inspiration can be taken from measures adopted by others state like Sikkim and Darjeeling in West Bengal, where stakeholders of both the states agreed upon some common working procedures.

Further, the MLA said that concern raised by All Khasi Meghalaya Tourist Taxi Association is genuine, however, it should be mutually resolved with the Assam tourist taxi association.

"Both the parties should come to an understanding which will benefit common people and tourists alike," he said while adding "We, as stakeholders in Meghalaya, need to bring in measures by giving better facilities in terms of reasonable rates, better amenities and friendly behaviour so that tourists coming from outside the state feel more comfortable, enjoy their stay in Meghalaya and prefer local tourist cabs. All tourist taxi associations of Meghalaya and other stakeholders should sit across the table and discuss this matter to promote tourism."

He informed that the Government of Meghalaya under the leadership of Conrad Sangma has taken enough measures to boost the Tourism industry, but we need to properly grab and build upon this opportunity.

Furthermore, Meghalaya Tourism is likely to touch its peak within the next 10 years as the initiative taken by the MDA government can increase our Tourism capacity upto 50 lakhs per year.

"So, it’s in the interest of both the states that a common understanding be reached between both Assam and Meghalaya tourist taxi associations so that it can benefit the region," he asserted.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, Aug 14: Meghalaya is all set to organize various festivals from October 12, to further promote the tourism industry in the state. 

Announcing this today, Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh said, "A sleuth of events are coming up in order to further enhance the image of Meghalaya as the ultimate tourist destination of the country."

A three-day Megha Kayak Fest, which is an annual whitewater contest, will be held at Umtham village, which is also known as the Whitewater Village of Meghalaya - from October 12 to 14. 

This will be followed by the Shillong Literary Festival, which aims to honour, remember and reflect on cultural heritage, wellness, and strategies for helping and uplifting children and youth, to be held in Shillong from November 14 to 16. 

Lyngdoh said that the Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival, which is a major crowd-puller in the last few years, is also scheduled to be held from November 17 to 19. 

This year, the festival will be held in Ri Bhoi district. 

The festival had to be cancelled last year following the Mukroh firing incident which killed 6 persons of which five are from Meghalaya and an Assam forest guard. 

Organiser of the festival Jason Manner said that over 12,000 tickets were sold per day last year and it was estimated that the state would have had over 60,000 people visiting the state. 

"We had to refund about Rs 1.25 crore worth of tickets to people and all that was completed within January first week, this year," he said while revealing that the loss due to this was approximately Rs 3.6 crore. 

"This year, we are targeting over 90,000 people to come for the Cherry blossom festival," he added. 

The minister said there will be critics everywhere but it is not for nothing that Meghalaya is known as the music capital of the country.

"In fact, a number of musicians are struggling to meet both ends meet because of a dearth of opportunities. Now, we are offering that platform of opportunities and the benefits will go not to just the organizers and the artists taking part in those events but there will be so many who will benefit indirectly from these numbers of activities," he said.

Stating that Meghalaya is on a growth trajectory, Lyngdoh further said, "Therefore, there is always space for improvement and certainly public conveniences need to be installed. Certainly, there is gap between demand and supply and this is an area we keep improving, we keep learning and we will certainly ensure that we upscale the amenities we have currently."

"We also have the roads as one of the components of projects which are linked to tourism but these are only roads which connect or have the potential to add a filip to tourism," he said while adding that he cannot comment on the functioning of the PWD (Roads) as to why certain roads are bad in the state. 

The minister also further announced that beginning next year, there will be regular shows held at U Soso Tham Auditorium and Lariti, erstwhile SICPAC. 

"Since there is this constant demand from visitors, we will be having regular shows, one at U Soso Tham Auditorium which will be hosted by the Arts and Culture department along with the support of the Department of Tourism and second we also have the Lariti (which earlier known as SICPAC) I had undertaken another inspection of Lariti last week and we are ready now to open up and start the services and utilize the 3 theatres we have inside the Centre and amphitheatre outside. So there will be regular events beginning next year," he added. 

The other festivals that are lining up include Me.Gong Festival, which is to promote the culture, uniqueness and lifestyle of the Garo people and promote Garo Hills as a tourism destination, the Winter Tales Festiva, a one-of-a-kind project and a festival curated by Dakti Crafts which serves as a platform for Meghalaya's unique talents and entrepreneurs to convey their stories via food, arts, craft and music, and the Meghalaya Grassroots Music Project, which seeks to provide a musical platform for local artists. However, the dates for these festivals will be announced later.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 15: Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh has informed that his department will try to upscale the level of tourism in the state.

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“…most importantly, the focus will not be on footfalls, not on the numbers of tourists who are visiting Meghalaya but more on the quality of tourists visiting Meghalaya meaning that the success of the department will not be viewed in terms of how many arrivals but generally we will try to upscale the level of tourists in Meghalaya,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

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He said there is a need to enhance the infrastructures in the state in order to achieve this objective to upscale the tourism industry in the state.

“To do that, we need to enhance our infrastructure and this is linked to various other departments. I am sure that under the able leadership of Conrad K Sangma, this will be possible and we will be in a position to optimize the potential of Meghalaya as a tourism destiny,” he said.

The state government and the tourism department have proposed to implement the first of its kind ropeway project at Shillong viewpoint.

When asked about the status of the project, Lyngdoh said, “These are ongoing projects and hopefully we will be in a position to physically open to the public in the next six months’ time.”

“Work has already started. I mean a lot of work which you don’t see physically – land issues and stuff like that which have already been handled. The physical execution should be visible max six months from today,” he added.

If the government is contemplating to implement similar projects in other parts of the state, the minister however said, “Right away all I can state is that we are in the process of finalizing the state budget so depending on the budget allocation of the department of tourism, depending upon on central funds that will be made available, depending on externally aided projects, cumulatively this will work into how much we strengthen our infrastructure, ropeways or whichever ways.”

Asked on the steps to be taken to protect the caves, which are one of the main tourist attractions, from the negative impact of coal mining in the state, Lyngdoh said, “We will go out of our way to ensure preservation and maintenance of these caves. That is the policy of the government and that is the policy that I am going to adopt. How to do it, leave it to the wisdom of the minister in-charge and the government of the day.”

Lyngdoh concluded by saying “Leaving aside initiatives, what we need most is focus, prioritization. Have your priorities, have your focus, everything else will fall into place.”