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INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK

The nature's bounty coupled with aggressive interaction with tours & travels operators in India & abroad Meghalaya Tourism department is trying to turn the state into one of the best tourist destinations in the country. This was stated in an exclusive interview by P.W.Ingty Commissioner & Secretary Tourism to Meghalaya Government.

In his interview Ingty told <whispersinthe corridors.com>about plans that the state is embarking on an ambitious programme of developing tourism infrastructure based on joint ventures and P-P-P .Tourism policy of the state "focuses on rural based tourism, by involving the local community as stake holders particularly for security, hospitality services, maintenance and management of infrastructure created in the rural areas. Among other things, the policy seeks to make the State one of the best tourist destinations of the country and to create an environment that will attract outside investment." Here goes his interview:

1/In what way your tourism policy is unique?

A-The tourism policy of Meghalaya is simple and yet it seeks to enable the State to set out on the road of self discovery and sustainable development. With the realization that the strength of the state lies in nature based tourism, the policy endeavors to preserve and enrich our natural and cultural heritage while at the same time creating a suitable environment for development of basic infrastructure facilities and services for tourism. The focus is on rural based tourism, by involving the local community as stake holders particularly for security, hospitality services, maintenance and management of infrastructure created in the rural areas. Among other things, the policy seeks to make the State one of the best tourist destinations of the country and to create an environment that will attract outside investment.

2/What new projects of the MTDC are on the anvil?

A-Some of the new projects of Meghalaya Tourism that are on the anvil are

o A Convention Centre at Umiam(Barapani) on the banks of the Umiam lake.
o Cable Car Ropeway project at Cherrapunjee
o Eco Tourism Resort at Chisobibra.
o Rural Tourism project, Sasatgre
o Rural Tourism project, Ialong
o Rural Tourism project, Siju
o Tourist resort, Jakrem hot springs

3/In what way you are packaging your state's tourism so that inbound tourists cannot resist the temptation of touring Meghalaya?

A-Tourism activities in Meghalaya are loosely linked to the seasons of the year

o During October - November we have the Autumn Festival at Shillong , some of the events that can be experienced by tourists in this season (2007) are - World Record Guitar Ensemble, Golf tournament, Affro Reggae , Vintage car rally, Traditional music & dances , Nongkrem dance, trekking from Mawsynram to Laitkynsew via the Living Root Bridges, traditional archery, the colors of Jaintia Hills, monolith festival, waterfall run, Jowai carnival, fishing festival Shella, Hundred Drums Wangala Asanang, Tourism Expo, AHAR exhibition.
o During December - January , tourists can experience - Ethnic Rythms Winter Festival Tura, Nokrek Biosphere Reserve, Village Gibbon Sanctuary Selbalgre, Caving in Jaintia Hills/South Garo Hills, visit to Balpakram National Park, Pitcher Plant sanctuary Baghmara, Bird watching in Siju Sanctuary, trekking to Chitmang, Christmas festivities at Shillong, Jowai and Tura.
o February - April , a good time for cavers to explore caves located at Lumshnong, Siju and other parts of the State. Food festivals, Spring flower shows, Annual pilgrimage to Lumsohpetbneng organized by Seng Khasi Shad Suk Mynsiem (Dance of the joyful heart) , Shad Rongkhlieh in Jaintia Hills,a good time for trekking, adventure sports and ecotourism. Play golf at Shillong in one of the best golf courses in this part of the country.
o May - August , Apphira archery competition at Polo Shillong, Beh Dein Khlam festival at Jowai and Tuber, best time to experience the heavy showers of rainfall and view gushing waterfalls at Sohra(Cherrapunjee) and other places.

4/Do you think that there is some possibility of group study exchange programme in collaboration with other states & private tour operators?

A-The Meghalaya Tourism Officials and Private Tour Operators, Hoteliers and others have been interacting with counterparts from other states as well as other countries, notably West Bengal, Assam, Bangladesh , Thailand, Andhra Pradesh, etc. Through these interactions we have realised that there is tremendous scope for exchange programmes and interactions relating to tourism, trade, industry, arts & culture, etc. We wish to explore this area extensively.

5/Since the Corporation became operational late, how are you now trying to catch up with the lost time?

A-The State of Meghalaya is blessed with natural resources, beautiful scenery, salubrious climate, inherent hospitality of tribal people and vast scope for development of tourism. However, the State lacks tourism related infrastructure. To make up for this shortfall, the Meghalaya Tourism is embarking on an ambitious programme of developing tourism infrastructure based on joint ventures and P-P-P

Kalyani Sethuraman selected as Advisor
Kalyani Sethuraman has been selected as Advisor to the UNOPS Programme for working with the Government of Afganistan. Kalyanai is an IRAS officer.

Move to transfer Kabul post to London
Kabul Post of Correspondent Prasar Bharti is being transferred to London. What is the significance ?.

Veena Birbal appointed Judge of Delhi HC

Veena Birbal has been appointed Additional Judge of the Delhi High Court for a period of two years with effect from the date she assumes charge of office.
( We said this only yesterday )

IAS officer shifted in Bihar
DM Saharsa Niranjan Choudhary has been removed on the directive of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.He is 1995 batch IAS officer .Narmdeshwar Prasad will be new DM.

Swatantra Singh is Up-Lokayukta of UP
Swatantra Singh has been appointed new Up-Lokayukta os Uttar Pradesh.

Yogesh is CF Bandardewa
Yogesh has been posted as CF (Wildlife) Bandardewa (Arunachal Pradesh).He is an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer of the 1984 batch & belongs to the AGMUT cadre.
(We said this on August 6,2007)

Two year MA degree programme at TERI University
The DoPT sponsors a 2 year MA degree programme at the TERI University, New Delhi. The third programme commences 14 January 2008. The last date for applying is 08 Oct 2007. Details can be seen at
http://persmin.nic.in/otraining/Circular_23082007_01.pdf or at theTERI Universuty website www.teriuniversity.ac.in
Designed as a high quality programme, it includes core and elective courses and an international module at the University of Texas and at Yale University. Course work for one year will be at the TERI University, while the second year will be devoted to a thesis at the candidate's place of
work.

Gogia to go abroad for training
Vivek Gogia is going to Italy for a training beginning September 17.He is 1991 batch IPS officer of UT cadre.

Shortage of Army officers
According to official sources Armed forces are short of a staggering 14,264 officers - the bulk of them in the army.

28 airports to be upgraded
The Airports Authority of India is upgrading 28 unprofitable airports in various states. The airports where such works were in progress include Chandigarh, Amritsar, Dehradun, Lucknow, Varanasi, Tirupati, Guwahati, Silchar, Surat, Vadodara, Mangalore, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Shillong, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Udaipur,

Vikram Sahay returns to Railways
Director in the Ministry of Heavy Industries Vikram Sahay has returned to the parents Railways after completion of deputation tenure.

69 IAS officers of 1988 batch empanelled
Altogether 69 IAS officers belonging to 1988 batch are believed to have been empanelled to the rank of Joint Secretary in the Government of India. They are Mssrs:-Satya Gopal, Ms Renu Sharma, Dharmendra Sharma and Narendra Kumar (UT), Aramane Giridhar, Ms Poonam Malakondiah, Ms Yerra SriLakshmi, Ms I Rani Kumudini, M Veerabhadraiah, Praveen Kumar Shrivastava and Jishnu Barua (Assam-Meghalaya), Babu Lal Agrawal (Chhattisgarh), Ms S Aparna, Ms Anita Karwal,Arvind Kumar Sharma (Gujarat), Tarun Bajaj (Haryana), Ali Raza Rizvi, Trilok Chandra Janartha and Ram Dass Dhiman (Himachal Pradesh), Sandeep Kumar Nayak,Arun Kumar Mehta(J & K ), Arun Kumar Singh, Alka Tiwari (Jharkhand), Shambhu Dayal Meena, Dr E V Ramanareddy, P N Sreenivasachari, Dr Rajkumari Khatri (Karnataka), T K Jose and Gyanesh Kumar (Kerala), Sanjay Bandopadhyay, I C P Kesari and Praveen Garg (Madhya Pradesh), Apurva Chandra, Nitin N Kareer, Arvind Singh, Ashish Kumar Singh and Dr Sanjay Ambadass Chanade (Maharashtra), Dr Rakesh Sarwal, Dr Rajesh Kumar, K Rajeshwar Rao, S K D Verman and M H Khan (Manipur-Tripura), Parag Gupta, C J Venugopal, S C Patanaik and Pridipta Kumar Mohapatra (Orissa), Satinder Pal Singh , Ms Ravneet Kaur and Dr Roshan Sunkaria (Punjab), Ms Upma Srivastava (Sikkim), Atulya Mishra, Ms D Sabitha, D Jothi Jagarajan (TamilNadu), Alok Kumar I, Dr Rajneesh Dube, Navneet Kumar Sehgal, T Venketesh, Anil Sant, Manoj Kumar Singh, S Radha Chouhan (Uttar Pradesh), Indevar Pandey, M Venketshwar Rao, H K Dwivedi, Laima Chozah, Sunil Kumar Chaturvedi, Sepuri Suresh Kumar (West Bengal), Rajiv Bansal ( Nagaland) Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu (Uttarakhand) and Manjit Singh (Rajasthan).

Pak official to meet Benazir in London ?
Tariq Aziz, secretary of the National Security Council is in London for a final round of talks with Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairwoman Benazir Bhutto. Meeting is expected to take place in a day or two.

Intelligence shake-up on cards in AP

Shake-up in intelligence set-up is going to take place in Andhra Pradesh soon.

Ayodhya Judge re-appointed
A retired Allahabad High Court judge Om Prakash Shrivastava who was hearing the matters related to Ayodhya, has been re-appointed to continue the hearing.

New Judges of Delhi High Court
The President has appointed justice Kailash Gambhir, justice Gurindar Singh Sistani, justice S Muralidhar and justice Hima Kohli as Additional Judges of the Delhi High Court.

FORUM

Think over Police set up in the states

Wait and watch. In all probability KP Jain too shall say 'No' to the TN Government just as ML Sharma has said, "seen. Thanx" to the Maharani in Jaipur. No sensible police officer wants to go as DG in a State after he has seen the relative freedom of expression and action which Sharma has seen in CBI and KP in the IB. It should make us think about the state of affairs in the State Police setups.

N N Ojha

I Agree

I agree with NN Ojha's views regarding exaggerated notions held by some IAS officers about their knowledge of grassroot conditions gathered during their field postings and their back breaking schedule of 18 hours a day and their contribution in policy formulation. In this connection farmers suicides and bouncing of relief cheques in several cases in a well administered state like maharashtra and messy conditions during monsoons in Mumbai can give some clue to the kind of governance provided. Many IAS officers if allotted North East cadres avoid serving there for as long as possible. Regarding policy formulation, one example should suffice. The kind of resistance offered to a people centric step to bring about accountability and transparency like RTI Act and efforts made to dilute it .Like Jalaj I have also come across some very brilliant IAS officers who do not harbour any wrong notions about their intellectual superiority and contribution in policy formulation and are down to earth people. CSS and other central services officers certainly face discrimination and disparity in matters of salary ,promotion, deputation. foreign assignments/training and the same needs to be removed rather than justified. More importantly people need better governance from IAS CSS Central Services and all those who form part of government machinery.

Sudhir Chopra

tail-piece

Why don't the Paks marry Indians? They can get the whole of India as dowry.

D Choudhury

Aaj Ki Aawaz

Comrade Bardhan wants to retire!!!
Seems from Comradeship ho gaya hai tire!!

Maybe in retirement he'll become happy!!!
Because throughout his Comradeship he's had a face that looked very unhappy and crappy!!

Bardhan says UPA is committing Sati!!
UPA will be right if it feels ki brahsht (rotten) ho gayi hai Bardhan ki matti!!!

Wives committed Sati on their hubby's pyre so why's Bardhan made this remark!!!
Okay Commies have to bark but why not a logical bark!!!

UPA does not have a hubby and so no question of hubby popping it!!!
Though tomorrow Bardhan will backtrack saying he said this in wit!!!

CPI will do India a big favour by retiring Bardhan without any delay!!!
CPM's Karat too should retire…. Commie retirement relay!!!

In fact Nuclear Deal is the only step by UPA that's not Vote Bank guided!!!!
' India 's negotiated very intelligently' many Members of NSG have confided!!!

Though this is for sure that in the future Congress will reap the benefits for this step!!!
Recall that Commies had made us feel Liberalization was bad and today we feel it gave India pep!!

Do you recall on Manmohan's Liberalization initiative the noise that Commies made???
That time too in the hands of China and USSR they played!!!

Both China and USSR wanted India to be financially insecure!!!
USSR and China felt Liberalization could make India secure!!

So we had Commies shouting from rooftops!!!
That Liberalization was a World Bank scam and Sarkaar should apply the stops!!!

Then too they had said that Manmohan was a World Bank stooge or Man!!!
From the Finance Ministry they wanted ki Manmohan ho jaye ban!!!

History has proven them as being grossly wrong…. shame shame!!
And has exposed their pro China and Russia game!!!

They cried that Manmohan was on World Bank's payroll whereas he was on pension!!
Their own funding source would the Commies like to mention???

Commies are funded by Russia and China and so have to toe both's line!!!
After all one has to obey the one jo salary cheque karta hai sign!!!

Amrinder says he's still a racing horse!!
And retirement to the pastures will only be perforce!!!

Racing Horses have two jobs…. run races or be a stud!!!
He's not been a very good race horse but being a stud is in his blood!!

His Grandfather was known as the Patiala Stud and made a name in this!!!
To provide stud services no opportunity kee Grandpa Bhupinder Singh ne miss!!!

Punjab's FM is looking into ways and means to mobilize resources!!!
He's going to tax Mobile Companies and users and may tax players on the Bourses!!!

If you dabble in stocks you could be required to pay a tax!!!
The gambling aspect Punjab 's FM will tax!!!

They say Rahul Baba is getting ready for midterm polls!!!
And post polls he's contemplating on different roles!!

He better get his act together because a few more misses and he'll be a write off!!
Rahul's the Prince Charles of India people will scoff!!!

And he better read the writing on the wall….. in Capital Letters!!!
That Congress in the next election could be in tatters!!!

Congress is coming up with Muslim appeasement ka next wave!!!
So that during election time in the faces of Muslims the doles they'll wave!!

But in UP appeasement did not work for Congress!!!
Muslims took Congress to be ' opportunists in friend's dress'!!!

Regionally there are so many claimants to Muslim's yaari!!!
And Congress in most States looses out in the Muslim votes ke liye maara maari!!

Mayawathi is trying to distance herself from UPA!!
She knows if she's seen as a UPA ally a heavy price in UP she'll have to pay!!

Seems she's preparing for a midterm poll!!
And she knows that being perceived as close to UPA there's a toll!!!

In Beijing flies are wanted...... alive or dead!!!
Now in Beijing this has become a money making opportunity and flies are being bred!!

2 Yuan is the going rate for a dead or live fly!!!
Out of Beijing Civic Authority's coffers a lot money to fly bounty hunters will fly!!

So what if some Cops shook Sanju's hand….. Media's been haloing him!!!
At most Government should reprimand them …. take a dim view and not grim!!!

They were shaking the hand of Munna Bhai!!!
And not Sanju Bhai!!

Bharat Kumar

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CORPORATE

Tenure of Mukherjee to expire in October

Tenure of Deputy Managing Director of the Tata Steel, T Mukherjee, will expire on October 31.

Berry in Planning Commission panel
Suman Berry, Director-General NCAER, has been appointed Member of a 12 member high- level committee on financial sector reforms set up by the Planning Commission.

Parsvnath to enter Telecom Sector
Parsvnath Developers have decided to enter the Telecom Sector.

New MD of General Motors
Karl Slym has been appointed new President and Managing Director of General Motors. He replaces Rajeev Chaba who has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director, GM Egypt