Meghalaya Tourism department to up the ante; 1st of its kind ropeway project soon

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.”

NextGen Democracy representatives at NEHU, Shillong for mutual learning

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 13: Under the aegis of Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) a delegation of 38 youth leaders from eight countries such as Chile, Kenya, Ecuador, Mexico, Suriname, New Zealand, Nigeria visited North-Eastern Hill University with a purpose of mutual learning and interaction with NEHU faculty and students.

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The Office of International Affairs (OIA) of NEHU held the meeting cum interaction to felicitate these foreign delegates from eight different countries who are part of a mission called “NextGen Democracy” and paid a state visit to NEHU to share their experience of democratic processes and struggles in their respective countries with NEHU fraternity.

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The Vice-Chancellor presided over the programme and felicitated the visiting dignitaries. Dignitaries included Member of Parliament from Suriname, Kanafe Josafat Obed who represents African origin people in Suriname parliament and expressed his pleasure at NEHU’s hospitality and the level of discussion. Another prominent public figure included Norbert Andrew Ouma of Kenya, who is a grassroot politician shared his rich experience of being a footballer and a grassroot level party builder. Another significant voice from Chile, Maite Estay, who is the spokesperson of Chilean Confederation of Students showed her solidarity and empathy for women’s role in public life in a democracy as well as in leading the university in research and studies. Another noted political personae from City administration of Cuenca Under the provincial government of Azuay of Ecuador expressed her desire to explore Shillong and Meghalaya and found quite a few learnable things in her brief visit to NEHU. In a similar vein, Aryana Nafissi, a prominent opposition leader and tax consultant from New Zealand expressed her deep interest in India’s democratic processes and exhorted NEHU in making rapid strides in understanding global democratic scenario by way of creating leadership.

Deans of Schools such as Prof. Erwa Jyrwa, Prof. Lucy Zehol, Prof. Vanlalnghak, Prof. A.K. Chandra, Prof. N. Saha, Prof. Iftekar Hussain felicitated visiting dignitaries and exhorted them for a future collaboration and trust building. Prof. Debendra K. Nayak, seniormost Professor of NEHU felicitated dignitaries from Nigeria and Mexico and expressed his deep interest in academic and cultural bonds that exist between India and visiting dignitaries. Prof. Don Syiem too felicitated visiting Nigerain dignitary and exhorted the need for building trust and partnership.

The Vice-Chancellor of NEHU appreciated the role of Government of India under the able leadership of Narendra Modi in exposing youth to democratic processes across the globe and he expressed the hope that NEHU and Northeastern region shall be able to make the best of such cultural exchanges.

In his response, Purav Kumar Bhailal Panchal, an Indian origin Swiss citizen and educationist wanted to know about NEHU’s curriculum in Educational Sciences and sough collaboration in educational research from Govt. of India and Govt. of Switzerland. Some other foreign delegates wanted to know NEHU’s facilities on studying music and performance, to which Prof. Desmond Kharmawphlang responded positively and implored the interested foreign students to join NEHU’s programmes of study.

Prof. Prasenjit Biswas, on behalf of Office of International Affairs thanked profusely the delegates from eight countries and impressed upon them NEHU’s advantage in highest standard of research and learning at very low cost and invited students and researchers from Latin America, Africa, Europe to join NEHU in large numbers.

The visiting team left for Mawsynram and Sohra after completion of their visit to NEHU.