Central fillip for Kongthong not too far away

SHILLONG, Aug 4: Central boost in order to help Kongthong, the whistling village in Meghalaya, preserve its age-old whistling tradition and to develop in terms of tourism is not very far away.
According to Union Minister of Culture, G Kishan Reddy, the Meghalaya government must send a proposal for development of Kongthong village in terms of tourism and also for setting up of a museum.
Reddy said in his written reply to one of the unstarred questions raised by Rajya Sabha member Rakesh Sinha in Parliament on Thursday.
When contacted, Sinha said that he has also personally spoken to the Union Minister after the session on the matter.
“I was told that the state government needs to send some proposal. The response from the minister was very positive,” the Rajya Sabha member said.
According to him, this was the 9th time he had raised matter pertaining to Kongthong village in Parliament.
“No other village has been mentioned such many times in the Parliament,” Sinha said.
However, he emphasised that this is the way forward to process the move to UNESCO intangible culture heritage and tourism development.
The Rajya Sabha member also informed that he had also spoken to other four Union ministers on the development of Kongthong and the four adjoining villages including Mawmang, Sder, Mawshut and Swer.
In the question, Singh had sought Centre’s response on the steps that it plans to take to protect Kongthong’s centuries-old whistling tradition known as ‘Jingrwai Iawbei’ as it is a whistling village in Meghalaya and has been selected and nominated as one of three best tourist villages to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
He also questioned if the government would open a museum in Kongthong to display the traditional tunes used to identify and communicate with each other.
Another question was whether or not there was a plan to organise a cultural competition in Kongthong and collect best 75 tunes for display in the museum on the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Rakesh Sinha had announced adoption of Kongthong village and work eddicated towards its development as a model village and a tourist attraction, has dreams of transforming this sleepy village to a bustling hub of economic activities without having to dilute its pristine homogenous culture and ethos.