Manipur prepares for 4th Sectoral Summit of NEC

Imphal, Apr 19: Manipur is preparing for the fourth Sectoral Summit of the North Eastern Council to review the prospects of tourism industry the in North East, to be held in Gangtok from April 27.

Manipur Information Centre officials yesterday said Union Minister for DoNER Mani Shankar Aiyar and Chairman of North Eastern Council(NEC) Ambika Soni, Union Minister for Tourism and others will be present in the Summit.

Ministry of Tourism will hold an hour-long presentation on Tourism and Hospitality Industry in North East Region. A representative from the Ministry of Home Affairs will also give an hour-long presentation. There will be 20 minutes presentation each from the Indian Tourism Development Corporation Limited, the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited, Indian Association of Tour Operators, the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association, Hotel Association of India and Travel agents Association of India, official sources said.

The North Eastern Council at its 53rd meeting held in New Delhi on November 15-16 last year decided to organise sector-specific meetings every month by rotation in the eight North Eastern States to review central Sector/ Central Sponsored Schemes being implemented by the Central Ministries in the region.

A schedule of the first 16 meetings was drawn up accordingly.

The first Sectoral Summit to review on power sector programmes in the NE region was held on January 16-17, 2007 at Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh with Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister for DoNER and Chairman of NEC in the chair.

The second Sectoral Summit on road sector programmes was held on February 8-9 at Shillong, Meghalaya. The third Sectoral Summit to review commodity boards and APEDA, inland water transport, flood and erosion control and irrigation sector programmes was held on March 9-11 at Guwahati, Assam.

The fifth Summit on Air Connectivity will take place at Aizawl, Mizoram on May 18 and 19, the sixth Summit on Rail Connectivity at Agartala, Tripura on June 15 and 16 and the seventh Summit on education, Sports, Art and Culture in July 2007 at Imphal, Manipur.

UNI