Staff Reporter
SHILLONG:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be in the city on December 18 to attend the golden jubilee celebration of the North Eastern Council (NEC), will be part of an internal meeting of the council to be held at the State Convention Centre Auditorium followed by a public meeting at the Polo Grounds.
Members of the NEC, consisting of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, DoNER Minister, Governor and Chief Ministers of the northeastern states, Central Ministers belonging to the region, local MPs and MLAs and nominated Members of the NEC will be in attendance.
Besides state Chief Secretaries, selected Secretaries of Central Ministries, senior officers from the northeastern states and heads of the iconic institutions set up with support from the NEC have also been invited.
For the public meeting, besides the local population, prominent citizens, achievers, representatives of Self Help Groups, Farmers’ Groups from all the eight NE states will also be in attendance.
Presence of approximately 10,000 people is expected at the public meeting.
During the day, the Prime Minister will inaugurate some important projects of the region including Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong, dedicate 4G towers of Meghalaya, inaugurate NEC projects and Meghalaya state projects and lay foundation stones for some projects.
“GOLDEN FOOTPRINTS”, a commemorative volume chronicling NEC’s contribution towards the development of the north eastern region over the last 50 years will also be released during the golden jubilee event.
The contents of this book have been gleaned from the archives of the Council and from the official records of the eight member states of the NEC besides capturing in colour the iconic infrastructure and development works supported by the NEC in the recent past.
The jubilee is expected to provide a new platform for the NEC to deliver even better in the days to come, and to spearhead more development initiatives as has done effectively in the last five decades across the eight north eastern states.
NEC was established by an Act of the Parliament in 1971. It was formally inaugurated on November 7, 1972 at Shillong.