March 15, 2023 - NewsHub: Breaking Stories

Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey has assured of providing every possible help in developing and promoting the rich culture of Manipur. The Governor was speaking at the presentation ceremony of Manipur State Kala Akademi Awards, 2021, organised by Manipur State Kala Akademi at Maharaj Ghandrakirti auditorium, Palace Compound here on Monday, 13^th march, 2023.

While urging one and all to contribute their mite in promoting the beautiful and world famous Manipuri culture, the Governor said that she will inform the President and the Prime Minister about the beautiful culture of the state. Anusuiya Uikey further said that the efforts of Manipur State Kala Akademi (MSKA) will certainly preserve and promote the rare and unique cultural heritage of Manipur.

Since its inception, MSKA has been making efforts on sustained basis for promotion, preservation and propagation of rich cultural traditions such as music, dance, theatre, literature and fine arts within and outside the state. The Akademi organised festivals, workshops, seminars, symposia and cultural exchange programmes.

Governor presented MSKA Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 to Kshetrimayum Randhoni Devi, a noted theatre personality of Manipur.

The award carries a shawl, citation, memento and a cheque of Rs 3 lakh. She also presented MSKA Fellow-2021 to Chabungbam Kondum Singh and Sougaijam Thanil Singh. The Governor also presented MSKA Award to Professor K Sunita (Dance), A Nandita (Dance), A Apabi (Dance)’, Th Sudhir (Music), Y Suren (Music), N Jawaharlal Singh (Music), S Keshoram (Theatre), L Iboyaima Khuman (Shumang Leela), G Latsana (Traditional theatre), Thaba (Thang-ta), Birbabu (Narrative arts) O Iboyaima (narrative arts), Amuba Kamei (Tribal culture), AS Ruwung (Tribal culture), Ch Khomei (Literature), Dr Th Ibohanbi (Literature), S Indrakumar (Literature) M Maningou Singh (Fine Arts) and N Goutam Singh (Fine Arts).

Six young artistes namely Dr Urmika Maibam (Dance), Mangka Mayanglambam (Music), K Sangita Devi (Shumang Leela), M Herojit Singh (Thang-ta), L Phullochand Singh (Arangpham) and Thongin Haokip (Tribal culture) were also awarded MSKA Young Talent Awards on the occasion.

In his address, education minister Th Basantakumar Singh said that our identity is represented by our rich culture. Our cultural heritage is being reflected by classical Manipuri dance, traditional folk art forms and dances of different tribal groups.He also urged all to contribute for the promotion of rich cultural heritage of the state.

After the award ceremony award winning artists performed their art form before the audience. The award ceremony is the biggest award for performing arts in the State.

Manipur State Kala Akademi distributes award to performing artists Pic source Social media

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17 airports operational in northeast India

March 15, 2023March 15, 2023 - by Yenda News Agency

By James Khangenbam Imphal 15 March 2023

Indian government is going all out to connect the northeastern part of the country better. As many as 17 airports have been made operational in the northeastern region, India’s Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy said.

Reddy also said the development of a new greenfield airport at Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, and that of Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Silchar airports in Assam, Imphal airport in Manipur, Barapani airport in Meghalaya and Agartala airport in Tripura are ongoing, reported NDTV.

In the northeastern region, 17 airports have been made operational. Recently Donyi Polo airport (erstwhile Holongi Airport) has been inaugurated in Arunachal Pradesh.

Government of India has formulated a Greenfield Airports Policy, 2008 which provides detailed guidelines, procedures and steps related to construction of Greenfield airports across the country, including in Bihar. Under the GFA Policy, the project proponent- an airport developer or the respective state government willing to establish a Greenfield airport is required to send a proposal to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in the prescribed format for two-stage approval process that is, ‘Site Clearance’ followed by ‘In-Principle’ approval.

Under the GFA policy, Government of India has accorded ‘In-Principle’ approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports namely, Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Dabra (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi, Bhogapuram and Orvakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh across the country.

Out of these, 11 Greenfield airports like Durgapur, Shirdi, Kannur, Pakyong, Kalaburagi, Orvakal (Kurnool), Sindhudurg, Kushinagar, Itanagar, Mopa and Shivamogga have been operationalised.

Government of India has also granted the first stage clearance that is, site clearance for construction of three Greenfield airports namely Alwar in Rajasthan, Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.

Coming back to northeast India, referring to the railway projects, Reddy said new projects worth Rs 19,855 crore have been sanctioned for constructing railway tracks of 864.7 km since 2014-15 till date.

Presently, 20 projects, for new lines as well as doubling, costing Rs 74,485 crore for 2,011 km length falling fully or partly in the northeastern region are at different stages of planning or approval or execution, he said.

Out of these, 321 km has been commissioned and for which an expenditure of Rs 26,874 crore has been incurred, he said.

Several infrastructure development projects have been taken up by the ministries and departments concerned of the central government in the Northeastern Region (NER), which, include road connectivity.

Major ongoing capital road connectivity projects in NER include the fourlaneing of Dimapur-Kohima Road (62.9 km) in Nagaland; the four-laneing of Nagaon bypass to Holongi (167 km) in Arunachal Pradesh; alternate two-lane highway from Bagrakote to Pakyong (NH-717A) (152 km) in Sikkim; two laneing of Aizawl – Tuipang NH-54 (351 km) in Mizoram; four laneing of Imphal–Moreh section of NH-39 (20 km) and two-laneing of 75.4 km in Manipur among others, he said.

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India focuses on huge untapped potential of northeastern part

March 15, 2023September 13, 2023 - by Yenda News Agency

By James Khangenbam Imphal 14 March 2023

India is keenly focussing on developing the resourceful northeastern part of the country. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the entire North East the form of Ashta Lakshmi and gave it development, connectivity, infrastructure
development.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Act East’ policy instead of ‘Look East’ policy has seen unprecedented changes in the Ashta Lakshmi states of the Northeast in the last nine years, wrote The Organiser.

The mantra of ‘Vocal for Local’ and ‘Local for Global’ has given pace to the development. For a long time, there has been a thinking in the country that if there is development in the border area, then the enemy will be benefited. Due to this negative thinking, connectivity could not improve in all the border areas of the country, including the North East. Now Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasised the development of HIRA, that is, Highway, Inland Waterway, Railway and Airway. This has bridged the heartland gap between the North Eastern states, the rest of India and Delhi, the article quoted.

Digital connectivity is creating new opportunities for the youth power of the North East. Compared to 2014, the optical fiber coverage in the North East has increased almost four times. In Meghalaya, this increase is more than five times. Thousands of mobile towers are being installed for mobile connectivity.

Northeast India is now not far from Delhi and from ‘dil’ (heart), Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Bharatiya Janata Party workers and leaders at the party headquarters after the saffron party’s stellar performances in the three northeastern states including Nagaland and Tripura.

Prime Minister Modi said his government was investing Rs seven lakh crore to develop the infrastructure in the northeastern region.

Addressing the golden jubilee celebration of the North East Council (NEC) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Polo Ground) in Shillong, the Prime Minister said that the borders of the northeast were not the last areas but would be the security and development gateway with trade and commerce would be undertaken with the neighboring countries. He said that a vibrant border village would be created with all facilities and connectivity in the bordering areas, as was reported by the Business Standard.

The Prime Minister said that the northeast is India’s gateway to South -East Asia and can become a centre for development of the entire region and to realise this potential of the region, work was going on the projects like Indian-Myanmar Thailand trilateral highway and Agartala-Akhaura rail project.

Prime Minister highlighted that the government has gone beyond the conversion of the ‘Look East’ policy to ‘Act East’, and now its policy is ‘Act Fast for Northeast’ and ‘Act First for Northeast’.

Highlighting the success of peace initiatives in the region, he said that many peace agreements have been signed and a large number of insurgents join the mainstream of life, decades old inter-state boundary problems being resolved and there has been a marked reduction in instances of extremism, reported Business Standard.

Referring to the tourism potential of the region, he said that both culture and nature of the region are attracting tourists from across the world. Noting that in the last eight years, the number of airports in the region has jumped from 9 to 16, and the numbers of flights have increased from about 900 before 2014 to around 1,900 now, Modi said that work was now underway to connect all the state capitals of the region by railway networks.

Saying that the length of national highways has increased by 50 per cent since 2014 in the region, he said that with the launch of the PM-DevINE scheme, the infrastructure projects in the northeast have gained more momentum. He added
that the government was also working on improving digital connectivity in the Northeast by increasing the optical fibre network.