The launch of theme song and logo for ‘Destination North East’ an annual event for promoting tourism by the collaborative effort of North Eastern Council (NEC), Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and North East Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) was held at a virtual platform at the North Eastern Council Secretariat on 21st September.

The event was attended by Minister of State (Independent Charges) Ministry of DoNER, Govt of India, Dr Jitendra Singh, Secretary DoNER Inderjit Singh, members NEC Prof. Biman Kumar Dutta, Air Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi, Secretary NEC Moses K. Chalai and other officials of NEC and NERCORMP.

While addressing the meeting Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said that back in 2014 everyone one was saying that we must do something for North East so that the rest of the country can come closer to North East, we decided to take North East closer to the rest of India with the purpose to let people living in different parts of India acquaint with its cultural heritage, resources, entrepreneurship potential and its excellent natural beauty.

He also mentioned that Destination North East 2019 was held last year in Varanasi for four days where it was very well appreciated to the point that there was popular demand for extending it. The theme was “Celebrating Brahmputra in the Banks of Ganges.”

He further added that this time, owing to the pandemic the event would be carried out semi virtually with the opening ceremony to be inaugurated by Home Minister Amit Shah on 27th September and the closing ceremony which would be graced by Union Ministers Rameshwar Teli and Kiren Rijiju on 30th September. Dr Singh mentioned that post covid, Northeast would have a lot more to offer and being  relatively unaffected by the pandemic, the North Eastern region would be hub for the tourist who used to visit European resorts for holidays.

Speaking on this occasion Secretary NEC, Moses K Chalai indicated that the event is one of the high points in the NEC calendar but owing to the situation this time it had to be carried out on the virtual platform. However with technology, we hope to reach a widespread audience across the country and globe.

(DIPR, NEC)