Work in convergence to ensure sustaible development: Rijiju

From Our Correspondent

Itagar, Feb 12: To ensure sustaible development in the mountain regions of the country, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Saturday stressed on the need to work in convergence.

Rijiju was addressing the fourth edition of Meet of the Mountain States at the WWF India Secretariat in New Delhi, an official communiqué informed.

The minister on the occasion also highlighted the dilemmas of livelihoods in the development context and environmental consequences of development facing the mountain cities which have led to severe damage in valleys of Kullu and Mali and hill cities of Mussourie, inital amongst others. The meet organized by the Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) deliberated on subjects of water security, skill development, and disaster risk reduction in the mountains. The meet was also participated by MPs Dr Thokchom Meinya (Manipur), Vincent Pala (Meghalaya), Jitendra Chaudhury (Tripura), P D Rai (Sikkim) and former MP Tarun Vijay. While sharing the path followed by Sikkim towards sustaible development, Rai state that the state was moving to build a legislation to mainstream the subject in all departments and amongst citizens.

The meet was convened by IMI president Alemtemshi Jamir. Several eminent leaders of the development sector from organizations such as FAO (UN), NECTAR, NSDC, ICIMOD, SDC and WWF were also present. IMI, a civil society organization formed in 2011, aims at redefining the architecture of sustaible development across the 12 mountain states in the Indian Himalayan Region. It is a collective initiative for recognizing the value of mountain regions and ebling people to realize its potential by integrating the knowledge and experiences of multiple stakeholders.

IMI operatiolizes this platform through its annual Sustaible Development Summits (SMDS) and Meet of Mountain States (MoMS) by engaging different stakeholders to come together and engage in informed debates on themes relevant to the mountain regions, the communiqué added.