Tourism in North East poised for giant leap

Guwahati, July 3 (UNI) Schemes worth Rs 200 crore will be implemented in the North-East to promote tourism in the region, Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni announced here today.

Addressing the tourism and culture ministers of North-Eastern states, she said tourism promotion would create new job opportunities and employment generation.

She said her ministry had already allocated Rs 83 crore for the region and the amount could be increased up to Rs 100 crores under the non-lapsable fund meant for the north east.

The minister reviewed the progress of various projects and plans relating to tourism and culture in the north eastern states.

In her opening remarks, Ms Soni pointed out that the department of culture had undertaken many initiatives to promote and popularise the rich and diverse art and culture of the north east region, including Sikkim, under the scheme of Financial Assistance for setting up multipurpose cultural complexes in the various parts of the country. Under the scheme, financial assistance was being provided to an autonomous body created by the state governent.

M S Soni said the department of culture would organise a major cultural festival of all the north eastern states (OCTAVE) every year in different parts of the country to showcase the vibrant and rich cultural heritage of the north eastern region. The first edition of OCTAVE was launched in Delhi this year.

The meeting discussed the status of projects sanctioned by the Union Ministries of Tourism and Culture for the north eastern states, issues concerning project formulation and implementation, encouragement to private sector and local entrepreneurs for development of tourism infrastructure and the status and working of different hotel management and food craft institutes in the north east.

The review meeting discussed specific issues like celebration of 2550th anniversary of "Mahaparinirvana" of Lord Buddha, issues relating to restricted area permit, protected area permit, inner line permit regions in north east states, working of north east shilpagram at Dimapur, progress of the multipurpose cultural complex scheme of the Ministry of culture.

Tourism and culture ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura participated in the meeting.

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