U.S Fellowship delegation calls on CM

Guwahati, July 2 (HS): A 12-member U.S delegation of the Professional Fellows Program Outbound 2019 called on Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today at Brahmaputra State Guest House and held discussions on various issues.

Similarly, professional fellows from U.S. also visit India for a brief period of time as a part of the exchange program in order to increase their understanding of the Indian governance system, legislative process and society. The delegation engages with key stakeholders of the government apart from holding dialogues with civil society and undertaking field trips to comprehend the ethos of the Indian society.

This year the delegation has been visiting the cities of Delhi, Lucknow, Guwahati and Shillong. As part of the tour, the team members today met the chief minister and held interaction on the Act East Policy, success stories of Assam, immigrant issues and challenges faced by the state government.

Highlighting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s thrust to develop Assam and NE region through Act East Policy and state government’s endeavour to shape the state as the gateway to South East Asia, Chief Minister Sonowal elaborated the roadmap to capture the 800 million people strong market of ASEAN and SE Asian countries through industrial resurgence of the state in light of increased investment inflow to the state.

The chief minister informed the delegation that with better connectivity and communication, Act East Policy was putting emphasis on youth exchange programmes along with exchange of culture, literature, tourism etc with the neighbouring countries. Due to the central government’s focus on the development of the region and state government’s initiatives, consular offices of Bhutan and Bangladesh have been opened in the state.

Expansion of Guwahati as state capital region, construction of twin towers for bringing big business houses, development of rail, road, waterways and airways etc are some of the activities that were highlighted by the chief minister during the interaction.

The senior state government officials present in the meeting informed about the various development measures taken by the state government with the support of central government including starting new international flights between Guwahati and Dhaka and other forthcoming flights like Guwahati-Bangkok along with flights to Kathmandu, Yangon, Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur.

Initiatives to set up of Sports University, Skill University at Mangaldoi in association with Singapore Government, upgradation of police academy, smart fencing at the international Indo-Bangladesh border, NRC up-gradation, bio diversity conservation, planting of 10 crore saplings in the state, rain water harvesting, incentives to farmers and providing of tractors to farmers of 26000 villages of state under CMSGUY scheme etc were also highlighted by the officials. The visiting delegation members were also informed about construction of three new bridges over Brahmaputra and steps to construct few more in the coming years, exporting vegetables by the state farmers to international markets by cargo flight services, construction of 500 playgrounds in the state, four laning of highways and double tracking of railways in the state, expansion of terminal of LGBI airport to make it a connectivity hub among others.

Media and Legal Advisers to the Chief Minister Hrishikesh Goswami and Shantanu Bharali, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Lohia, Commissioner and Secretary of Home department Ahustosh Agnihotri, Secretary to the chief Minister Ranjan Chakrabarty were also present during the interaction. Organising Secretary and National Secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) were also at the meeting.