Nine Union Ministers visited Shillong this year
SHILLONG: Meghalaya, which will elect its government in 2018, hosted at least six Union Ministers this year indicating the BJP that has made inroads into the North East with its win in the Assam assembly elections consolidating the party’s position.
The high-profile visits this year began with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who attended the 181st Raising Day celebration of the Assam Rifles in March. The programme was held at the headquarters of the Director General Assam Rifles in Laitkor.
Singh had also visited the residence of late Tura MP Purno Sangma and met his family.
This was followed by a visit by Smriti Irani, who was the Union HRD Minister, at the end of the month to attend the convocations of IIM-Shillong and the North East Hill University.
Irani was followed by Union DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh in April. He was in the city to attend a function of the North eastern Council. Singh’s announcement at the function that the State would get a medical college under PPP mode came under the scanner of the State Election Commission as Tura Lok Sabha constituency was preparing for by-poll.
The most high-profile visit was of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May for two days to attend the 65th plenary session of the North Eastern Council. He had pledged to reduce isolation of the region by boosting connectivity like road, railways, telecom, power and waterway. He had also stressed on how important the region was for the government.
Modi had also addressed a large crowd in the city, besides visiting Elephant Falls and the Sacred Groves at Mawphlang.
Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P Nadda also visited NEIGRIHMS on two occasions, one being in June when he attended the institute’s governing council meeting.
DoNER Minister Singh was back in Shillong in August to pay tribute to Khasi freedom fighter U Tirot Sing at Nongkhlaw on the occasion of Independence Day.
Nadda’s second trip to the city was in September when he attended the parliamentary consultative committee meeting on health at NEIGRIHMS. He had nudged all northeastern states, including Meghalaya, to utilise more central funds and asked them to develop capacity building support for the same.
The ninth month of the year saw another Union Minister’s visit. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar held an interactive session with students at IIM Shillong in September before meeting the chairpersons and directors of all IIMs.
During his interaction, Javadekar had asked IIM students in the city to take up teaching as career, besides improving research in all the IIMs in the country.
November was the busiest month for the security apparatus in the city as it witnessed the maximum number of visits by Union Ministers.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju first visited Shillong to inaugurate the 10th Biennial National Conference of the Physics Academy of North East at St Anthony’s College on November 10. By that time, the Centre had announced its surgical strike on black money and scrapped old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma had been pilloried by the MoS for being critical of the demonetisation.
A few days later on November 17, Rijiju again visited the city to attend the Platinum Jubilee Ceremony of the Assam Regimental Centre.
Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal also visited Shillong in November to review the activities of the North Eastern Council.
Sudarshan Bhagat, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, came in November and criticised the State Government for not utilising the horticulture budget during his meeting with the Horticulture and Agriculture Department officials.
However, such frequent visits by Union Ministers did not go down well with the Chief Minister who had questioned their intention of visiting Shillong at public expenditure.