Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, during the meeting with his Meghalaya counterpart Dr Donkupar Roy in Mumbai on Wednesday, promised to visit the State in October to work out the modalities of cooperation in industrial and tourism development between the two states.

A group of ministers led by the Chief Minister and several high level officials of the State are camping in the commercial capital of India for inauguration of a Meghalaya House scheduled for Friday.

The Government of Meghalaya in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is also organising a conference on "Business Prospects in Meghalaya" in Mumbai on Thursday.

"The objective of the conference is to highlight the business and investment opportunities in Meghalaya specially in the field of tourism and IT," Chairman of State Planning Board PA Sangma told The Shillong Times here before his departure to Mumbai.

Meghalaya has achieved a growth rate of 5.6 per cent against the national average of 9.86 per cent. To be on par with the national average, the State would require massive investment in physical, social and economic infrastructure, the State Chief Secretary Ranjan Chatterjee, who is also part of the State delegation, said.

SHILLONG: West Khasi Hills district administration has promulgated Section 144 CrPC in all parts of the district in view of the proposed office picketing by the Synjuk ki Seng Bhalang West Khasi Hills (SSBWKH) on Thursday.

Deputy Commissioner MR Synrem on Wednesday said the district administration had made elaborate security measures to deal with any attempt to disturb the functioning of government offices or movement of the public.

SSBWKH, an umbrella organisation of 15 NGOs of West Khasi Hills, has called a series of agitations in protest against the decision of the MPA Government to scrap the two-stage Kynshi power project. The organisation termed the move as a deliberate attempt to deprive West Khasi Hills of infrastructure development supposed to come through the project.

SSBWKH has also called road blockade from 7 pm of Thursday to 5 am on Friday. This would be followed by a 48-hour road blockade from September 1 to 2 and "public curfew" from September 4 to 5.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister (Home) Hoping Stone Lyngdoh told reporters that the Home Department had issued strict orders to the West Khasi Hills district administration to deal firmly with anybody trying to disturb movement of public and government employees in the district.

Justifying the MPA government's decision to scrap the deal on Kynshi project, Mr Lyngdoh said the agreement was not in the interest of the people of the district and the State as a whole.

"Scrapping of the 'faulty deal' does not mean that the project had been permanently revoked. The government has invited International Competitive Bidding as per the State Power Policy and fresh agreement will be signed accordingly.

He claimed that affected land owners of Kynshi had also supported government move. Terming the demand for revoking the decision to scrap the deal as "unacceptable", Mr Lyngdoh said the "shady agreement" had exposed manipulation by the previous MDA Government and the Syiem of Nongstoin.

Meanwhile, NEEPCO has refuted the news item "NEEPCO may drag MPA Govt to court" saying the Corporation had neither issued any official statement nor authorised anyone to issue such statement. Reacting to the report which stated that NEEPCO was likely to adopt legal course of action against the government over allowing two "upstream projects" ahead of the Corporation's Mawphu power project on Umiew river basin, an official statement on Wednesday said, "the Corporation is guided by the prevailing policies of the Government of India and the respective State Government in matters of its business".

NEW DELHI: Crisis has gripped the faction-ridden Congress in Meghalaya over PCC presidentship, but the high command seems to be in favour of OL Nongtudu to head the party for the time being.

According to party sources, Mr Nongtudu had met AICC president Sonia Gandhi who apparently asked him to continue till the party takes a decision. Mr Nongtudu's term expired recently.

Salseng C Marak, who was earlier defeated by Mr Nongtdu in the election to the post of PCC chief, and former Deputy Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma are in the race for the post, sources said.

A section of the State Congress leaders feel that Mr Nongtdu should be removed since the party, under his leadership, failed to form a government even after getting record number of seats.

However, supporters of Mr Nongtdu point out that both Dr Sangma and Mr Marak, "top leaders of Garo Hills", could not dent Purno Sangma's hold in Garo Hills in the Assembly elections. Mr Marak, a former Chief Minister, lost the last election, while Dr Sangma's brother, also a former minister, lost both in Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

Opposition to Mr Nongtdu's leadership gathered steam after the embattled PCC president threw his hat into the ring for the coming parliamentary polls. This has apparently annoyed Union Tribal Affairs Minister PR Kyndiah who represents the Shillong Lok Sabha seat and is aspiring to contest the election once more. The octogenarian Congress leader said, "There is no retirement in politics", hinting that there is no vacancy for Mr Nongtudu.

A Special Session of the Council on Tuesday rejected the Bill asking the ruling Congress-led Executive Committee to correct the "errors" on the Bill after discussing with the Select Committee formed in this connection.

However, Mr Syiem said, the Council members have not totally rejected the proposal to conduct the coming KHADC election as per the proposed delimitation of constituencies. "They only want to improve on some of the points mentioned in the report which was submitted by the All Party Committee on Delimitation of Constituencies," Mr Syiem said while speaking to reporters here on Wednesday.

"We would try to modify these points raised by the members and I am confident that the Bill would be passed in the coming session," Mr Syiem said.

The KHADC CEM also met Governor RS Mooshahary on Wednesday. He apprised the Governor of the fact that the State Government had not given its approval to eight Bills, which were passed by the KHADC long back.

The two-phase housing project estimated at Rs 30.44 crore has been handed over to Hindustan Prefab Limited (HPL) for execution and the housing units will be constructed in a nine-acre area at Lumphira in Nongmynsong on the city outskirts to accommodate 600 families.

Urban Affairs Minister Paul Lyngdoh on Wednesday said, "90 per cent of the total cost of the project would be borne by the Central Government while the rest 10 per cent would be funded by the State Government."

It may be mentioned that Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja laid the foundation of the project on December 20 last year. The proposed housing complex under JNNURM will have facilities like community centre, healthcare unit, livelihood centre and sewerage and drainage system.

The dwelling units at the complex would be allotted to poor people of the indigenous tribal communities keeping in view the provisions of the Land Transfer Act. The Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) and the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) will identify the beneficiaries.

HPL CMD Jaiveer Srivastava said Shilong had been included among 63 cities in the country to receive a facelift under the JNNURM. "Another five slum development programmes for the State are in the pipeline. The detailed project reports of the programmes had already been submitted to the Centre," he said.

Tura has also been covered under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSPDP) of JNNURM and an amount of Rs 21 crore had been earmarked for the project in the heart of Garo Hills.

In Group A, the first, second and third prize went to Anushka Sen (III) of St Mary's Montessori School, Juhi Deb (II) of Seven Set School and Sattik Shyam (KG) of St Edmund's School respectively while consolation prizes winners were Ankita Das (III) St Mary's Montessori School, Dihansa P Tariang (II), Laetilia S Syiemlieh Buam (III), Adela M Lyngdoh (KG) and Vedithaa Iyengar (KG) of Pine Mount School, Robin Gautom (I) of St Mary's Montessori School, Rachoita Das (KG) of Pine Mount School, Pratyusha Choudhury (KG) of St Mary's Monessori, Rishik Choudhury (I) and Prita Choudhry (II) of Army School Junior, Sudipto Nath (II) of Tender Care, Phoebe Toi (II) of Pine Mount School, Truefriend R Kharbuli (III) of KC Secondary School, Priyanka Banerjee (III) of St Mary's Montessori, Krishnakali Kar (II) of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Upper Shillong, Sanjibon Bhattacharjee (III) of St Edmund's School, Pranjali Bhattacharjee (III) of Pine Mount School, Riddhi Dey (III) of St Mary's Montessori, Rohit Kotal (III) of St Peters School, Virak Suiam (I) and Shruti Choudhury (I) of Rilbong LP School, Ilakyntiewdor Kurbah (III) of Army School Junior, Damonika S Gatphoh (KG) of Pine Mount School, Burningson Sangma of Queene Secondary School.

In Group 'B', the winners are (1st) Rupasree Choudhury (VII) All Saints School, (2nd) Surabhi Deb (VI) of Seven Set School and (3rd) Prize Ayananka Dutta (V) of Laban Bengali Boy's School. Consolation prizes winners are Thanglianlal Paite (VI) of Army School, Daisy Marak of Queenie School and Eshita Ghosh (V) Army School.

In Group 'C', Gaurav Ghosh (IX) of St Peter's School was the first prize winner, Anupam Ghosh (X) of Army School, the second prize and John Kitcharoen (IX) of KC Secondary School, the third Prize. Consolation prize - Arpita Paul (X) of Army School.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, NEICC secretary Rev N Sandiwell Phawa ureged upon the Centre and the Orissa government to take steps to diffuse the situation through "confidence building measures".

He also appealed to all Christians in Meghalaya and the North East to make August 31 as a day of special prayer for return of peace and normalcy in Orissa.

Further, Rev Phawa said that the National Christian Council of India (NCCI), Catholic Bishop Conference of India (CBCI) and Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) had jointly sent messages to the President and the Prime Minister seeking their intervention on the crisis.

In another development, an emergency meeting convened by the Catholic Association Khasi and Jaintia, Shillong on Wednesday, endorsed the decision of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) to shutdown all educational institutions run by the Catholic Church falling under the Shillong Archdiocese on Friday to express solidarity with Christians who are under attack by fanatics in Orissa while it also condemned such atrocities on minorities. It also decided to observe a day of prayer and fasting on September 7 and a peace rally on September 8.

Dr Lyngdoh further pointed out that women are also not allowed to be part of the traditional institutions like the Dorbar Shnong while adding that even today the traditional institutions are dominated by the male gender.

"Women are discriminated in every sphere of society. The physical, sexual, physiological violence are on rise in the North Eastern region," Dr Lyngdoh said.

Director, Women in Development (IWID) Dr Neelavalli, meanwhile, said that equality and liberty are the two major components in a democratic country like India.

"But, the fact is that this was not put into practice as there are many glaring incidents where women are ill-treated in the country. Be it in a religious institutions or important decision-making authority, women's representation is very less or at zero percentage," Dr Neelavalli added.

Padmashree Dr Helen Giri appealed to the masses "to practice what they preach".

Citing example of women empowerment and achievement in the State, Mrs Giri said there are many female students who are into field of music who have started to play ritualistic drum sticks, which is normally played by men, which is a good trend.

The workshop was organised by Civil Society Women's Organisation in collaboration with Impulse NGO Network and IWID.

The exhibition was a huge attraction among the students with about 600 children from different schools in the city attending it.

The exhibits covered a wide range of topics from petrology, palaeontology, study of gem stones, fossils form Gondwanaland, nuclear energy, radioactivity and its detectors, uranium ores and different cores of drilled rock samples, tissue culture, green chemistry, carnivorous plants, bernoulli's principle and many more.

The participating organisations were Geological Survey of India, Atomic Mineral Division, Atomic Energy Commission; Department of Botany, NEHU and the departments of Physics, Chemistry and Biology of the host school.

The aim of the exhibition was to inculcate an interest among the students in science and thereby removing the dread that students many a time have regarding science.

The aim was also to encourage students to take up science as a career in preference to technology.

Earlier in the day, a lecture entitled "Space Technology Applications" was delivered by Director, North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC) Dr PP Nageshwar Rao.

Dr Rao delved into the physics behind the remote sensing technology and the applications of the technology.

About 250 students from Lady Keane Girls' Higher Secondary School, Laban Bengalee Boys' Higher Secondary School and the host school attended the lecture.

A blood donation camp organised by National Service Scheme and National Cadet Corps of St Edmund's College in collaboration with the State Blood Transfusion Council and the Regional Blood Bank, Pasteur Institute at St Edmund's College at 11 am. The NSS unit of the college will also start a mobile blood camp in which patients can avail blood during emergency.

A lecture on 'Problems and Prospects - The North East and its people' by Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary at St Anthony's College at 11 am as part of the warm-up programmes in preparation for the Platinum Jubilee celebration of the college, which will commence on January 3 next.

Inauguration of the two-day orientation programme on child adoption and related issues for North Eastern States, organised by Meghalaya State Council for Child Welfare, by Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary at the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture Hall at 9 am here.

A State-level Students' Science Seminar on the topic 'Water crisis on earth: Problems and remedies' organised by Directorate of Higher and Technical Education at Don Bosco Youth Centre, Laitumkhrah at 10 am.

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