SHILLONG: Governor Tathagata Roy on Wednesday observed that tourism could turn out to be a money spinner and a fantastic potential for the whole of the North East, but at the same time lamented that not even 5 per cent of the potential has been utilised.
He was speaking as the chief guest at the XXVth Convocation of NEHU.
Roy said the lives of the people in Meghalaya and the North East as a whole will witness a huge quantum jump from tourism and “the North East will never be the same again.”
Besides tourism, the governor also spoke about the state’s potential in the field of herbs and medicinal plants, and said, “There should be utilisation of herbs found only in the NE. I will not mention uranium because that is a vexed subject but apart from Uranium there are many other fields where the North East has enormous potential for growth.” Speaking about the Northeastern states, the governor said, “I dislike the termed mainstream India because the North East is as much mainstream as any other part.”
Khasi and Garo languages
With NEHU also laying special emphasis on the development of the region which has a significant population of tribals, Roy said steps such as introduction of graduate and post graduate programmes in Khasi and Garo will take the languages to a level where they will be at par with other languages of the country.
He said the call on “whether the languages are included or not included, included later or included right away” is up to the leadership, but the importance of the languages will remain.
