PM Modi’s visit to Shillong and Agartala being considered as ‘Important’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely visit Meghalaya capital, Shillong and Agartala in poll-bound Tripura on Sunday, December 18. At Meghalaya’s capital Shillong, Mr Modi will preside over the Golden Jubilee celebration of the North Eastern Council at a function to be attended by all Governors and Chief Ministers in the region.

Ahead of the Prime Minister’s scheduled visit to Shillong on December 18, the East Khasi Hills district administration has prohibited using drones and other micro-light aircraft within a radius of 2 km of Polo Ground in Shillong. From Meghalaya, the Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Tripura, where he will address a public gathering at Agartala, inaugurate projects, and lay foundation stones for a few.

Elections are due in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland by February-March 2023. At Shillong, according to sources, the PM is likely to attend a function at IIM. He is also to address BJP Karyakartas in Shillong on Sunday. Sources say around 20 BJP office bearers and Karyakartas from Nagaland will attend the Prime Minister’s meeting at Shillong on Sunday.

The BJP central leadership is giving enough importance to the Prime Minister’s Shillong visit. Thus the party workers and critical leaders from Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur may also attend PM Modi’s meeting.

Meanwhile, amid intense demands for carving out a new state in the eastern part of Nagaland, a three-member special committee set up by the Government of India to look into people’s grievances visited Tuensang in Eastern Nagaland on Friday.

The team headed by A K Mishra is to conduct a spot study of the ground situation as the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) has stuck to its demand for the creation of a new state – Frontier Nagaland.

The ENPO leaders briefed the team, while another meeting occurred between the visiting officials and the tribal leaders. Two other panel members are Mandeep Singh Tuli, Joint Director of the Intelligence Bureau and A K Dhyani, Director North East Division in the Home Ministry.

The panel was set up within days of Home Minister Amit Shah meeting ENPO leaders and public leaders from the region in Delhi on December 6. The deliberations were based on ‘history, geography and the shortcomings’ of the administration and governance apparatus from Kohima over the decades, it was claimed.

Matters concerning the international border with Myanmar and the potential of optimum use of mineral resources and commerce and trade also figured. The ‘strategic importance’ of the region also figured prominently.