CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: As Shillong gears up for the 73rd Plenary Session of the North Eastern Council (NEC) on Thursday, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Meghalaya capital is set to host a major gathering of the region's top political and administrative leadership. Alongside Shah and Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jyotiraditya Scindia, Chief Ministers, Governors and Chief Secretaries from all eight North-Eastern States are arriving in Shillong for the annual policy forum aimed at shaping the region's development agenda. On the first day of the meeting, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma will present a key tourism roadmap that seeks to position the North-East as a unified destination and a major tourism market, reflecting a growing push for regional cooperation and collective branding of the region. Beyond the NEC deliberations, Meghalaya is also preparing to host a series of visits by senior Union ministers in the coming days. Union Health Minister JP Nadda is expected to visit Shillong on June 5, while Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is also likely to visit the State later this month.
Sangma, who chairs the High-Level Task Force on Tourism for the North East Region, said the report would focus on how the North-East can market itself collectively and leverage its combined strengths to emerge as a major tourism destination.
"So I chair the task force for tourism and we will be presenting that tomorrow and we will be talking about how the North East as a whole can represent itself as a destination or as a potential market for tourism, not just the states on their own, but the region as a whole," The CM said.
The Chief Minister said the NEC plenary would provide an opportunity for extensive consultations on the recommendations submitted by various sectoral task forces constituted by the DoNER Ministry under the leadership of Jyotiraditya Scindia. These include task forces on tourism, youth development, trade and infrastructure, each chaired by a Chief Minister and supported by other North-Eastern States.
"For NEC meeting, as your aware, that this is a annual affair and the chairman is the Union Home Minister. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be arriving in Shillong this evening. He will be landing in Shillong airport at about 9 pm in the evening and tomorrow is the mainly plenary session of North East Council," he said.
"And, of course, all the chief ministers and the governors of North East are in Shillong and I'm sure we will have a lot of constructive meeting," Sangma added.
"We have always discussed many things. DONER Minister In charge of Development of North Eastern Region Jyotiraditya Scindia has been very, very proactive," he said.
"I expect that we will be having a large kind of consultation and participation regarding major sectors. DONER Minister had put up a task force for different sectors for the North East, where he wanted different states to work together," he added.
"For example, a task force for tourism was set up. A task force for youth was set up, Task force for trade was set up. A task force for infrastructure development is one where one Chief Minister chairs the task force with four-five other chief ministers being members in that committee," he said.
The Meghalaya Chief Minister said the primary focus of Thursday's deliberations would be on reviewing the reports of the task forces and exploring ways to implement their recommendations across the region.
"So these kind of discussions, I expect, will be primarily the main focus tomorrow and to actually see how the reports of the different task forces will be implemented in the days to come. Apart from that, of course, there are other issues also which Union Home Minister and DONER Minister will bring up and that we will come to know tomorrow," he added.
The Chief Minister also underlined the significance of upcoming engagements with the Union government, including the visit of JP Nadda, the expected visit of Nirmala Sitharaman and the NITI Aayog meeting to be chaired by the Prime Minister on June 11.
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