Address at the Members of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly

Missions for Meghalaya Prosperity 

"Great missions born out of great minds?

I am delighted to be in this beautiful environment of Meghalaya and also to get this opportunity to address the Hon?ble Members of the Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya. I am very happy to be here in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly which is an institution that gives vision to the state, evolves the legal frame-work for the policies and programmes of the state and gives shape to the aspirations of the people of this state, 80% of whom live in rural areas. I have visited Meghalaya five times. Every time I visit, I get a feeling of happiness looking at the nature bestowed on Meghalaya. It is indeed a land of rainy clouds. Above all, I feel there is no reason for poverty to afflict the people of Meghalaya since they are in the midst of rich bio-diversity, mineral deposits, raw material availability, plenty of water and above all people with unique tribal culture. When I was preparing the lecture for the Assembly I was always thinking what I can give to the people of Meghalaya. Last few weeks my team and myself worked and evolved a road map for transforming Meghalaya into a economically prosperous state before 2017.

Every time I meet students both from high school and university and teachers of Meghalaya and also the tribal community particularly farmers in the herbal and aromatic area, I see in their eyes an urge to transform Meghalaya into a beautiful, happy, safe and prosperous state in India. Who can make realization of this dream possible? Only you the Members of Legislative Assembly can make the dream into a reality.

The political history and economic growth of Meghalaya are seen to be rhythmic and closely interwoven with that of our nation as a whole. Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya has witnessed and wisely guided several important phases of the State?s growth since its formation in the year 1972. In the face of many challenges, various governments have placed Meghalaya on a positive-growth track. I would like to discuss with the Hon?ble Members of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly: ?Missions for Meghalaya?s Prosperity?.

Our National Mission ? Challenges

Our nation is going through a major challenge of uplifting of 220 million people who are below the poverty line. They need habitat, they need food, they need health care, and they need education and employment finally resulting in a good life. Our GDP is growing at more than 8% per annum. Whereas, the economists suggest that to uplift the people who are below poverty line, our economy has to grow at the rate of 10% per annum consistently, for over a decade.

Integrated Action for Development

Our mission of transforming India into a Developed Nation is to meet the needs of all the billion people. We have identified five areas where India has core competencies for integrated action:

(1) Agriculture and Food processing  
(2) Education and Healthcare  
(3) Information and Communication Technology  
(4) Infrastructure: Reliable and Quality Electric power, Transportation system and related Infrastructure for all parts of the country including creation of PURA clusters.  
(5) Self Reliance in Critical technologies in Strategic sectors. These five areas are closely inter-related and when effectively addressed, would lead to food, economic, energy and national security. There should be all around growth in the all the five areas in the seven districts of the state to provide a balanced development both in rural and urban areas.

Engines for Growth

Emphasis should be on full utilization of natural and human resources of the region to meet the demands of modern society. We should also remember that about 50 percent of our population consists of young people, with aspirations for a better life. This is also true in the case of Meghalaya. The development process has to bring hope, opportunity and happiness to these aspiring youngsters. It should expeditiously address the challenges for leap frogging through conventional and technological means. Value addition to horticulture and floriculture, enhancing tourism potential, cottage industries, handicrafts, wool and sericulture on the State's core competencies and technologies, will lead to higher incomes and employment opportunities and therefore higher growth rates. The engines for growth will be the launching of the five national missions viz. water, energy, education and skills, infrastructure and employment generation. Developed Meghalaya will result in a developed India. Now, I would like to discuss the core competence of Meghalaya.

Core competence of Meghalaya

As you know Meghalaya is spread over a geographical area of 22,429 sq km. with a border area of 443 km with Bangladesh. Meghalaya has many rivers such as Daring, Sanda, Umkhri, Digaru in different regions. These rivers have created deep gorges and some of the most beautiful waterfalls. Most of these are rain fed and are therefore seasonal. Meghalaya has rich deposits of valuable minerals like coal, limestone, uranium and silimanite. With average annual rainfall as high as 1200 cm in some areas, Meghalaya is the wettest state of India. It is also a home for many rare species of birds, flora and fauna etc. Meghalaya is rich in forest and agriculture and horticulture produce.

With all these favourable factors, what can be the missions for Meghalaya? There cannot be any other mission, other than removing the poverty of the 45% people who are living below the poverty line as per the results of the survey conducted by the State Government. At this stage, let me share with you a Development Radar brought out by the Planning Commission for various states. The boundary of octagon projected in the development radar indicates the maximum achievements of various indicators of development. The smaller octagon represents the national average. While we appreciate you for reduced poverty, illiteracy, enhanced formal education and enhanced life expectancy in urban areas, the Hon?ble Members must realize that Meghalaya has got the potential to remove poverty altogether, increase the per capita expenditure, reduce the infant mortality rate, provide safe water, improve literacy and provide pucca houses with sanitation facility to each family in the rural areas.

Focus Meghalaya

My presentation to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly is based on the following principles:-

(a) Method of increasing the per-capita income of the State to Rs. 60,000 from the existing Rs. 23,381 in five years.  
(b) Improving the Human Development ranking of Meghalaya from the present 24 to less than five.  
(c) Realizing the goal of total literacy before 2017 by giving highest priority to women's education, particularly the tribal population.  
(d) Progressively reducing the number of people living below the poverty line from the existing 45 percent to near zero by 2017.  
In Meghalaya, it is possible to increase the revenue generation of the state and earning capacity of the citizens through creating market avenues with its neighbouring country in Bangladesh in addition to meeting the local requirement. Of course, I can see the political environment, you have to continuously improve the relations with the neighbouring countries, so that Meghalaya can benefit in the business at the same time keeping security as a primary need in the mind.

Missions for Meghalaya

Let us study what are the missions which Meghalaya can undertake using the core competence of the state. The following are the missions for Meghalaya?s Prosperity for the period 2007 to 2017:

1. Agriculture, Horticulture and Floriculture  
2. Education and healthcare  
3. Water Management  
4. Bamboo mission  
5. Tourism  
6. Establishment of PURA for Rural prosperity  
7. Special Economic Zone

Let me now discuss each missions in some detail.

Mission 1: Agriculture, Horticulture and Floriculture

a. Agriculture: Meghalaya is using around 1,10,000 hectares for cultivating paddy crop. However, I find that the average productivity is around 1700 kg per hectare. This is much lower than the national average. With the availability of plenty of water and good soil, we have to find the problem areas which restrict the productivity of the land. The first aspect we have to concentrate is on the selection of quality seeds of the rice variety which are liked by the tribal and produce hybrid and high yield variety seeds which can tolerate both flood and drought. Simultaneously, the Government has to assist in the creation of large number of ponds in the village so that water can be stored and also prevent flooding of the rice crop. This availability of stored water can be pumped at will by the use of small ground water pumps including solar powered pumps. The farmers can be trained on the improved practices for cultivating rice and also enhancing rice production through multi-cropping during the year. In this connection, I would like to discuss the Bihar model which has been successfully implemented and is being practiced by the farmers.

Food grains productivity: An experiment has been carried out by the TIFAC team in Bihar, in the RP Channel 5 and Majholi distributory and later extended to Paliganj and other 5 distributaries on the request of farmers. The productivity of paddy has increased in these villages from 2 tons per hectare to 5.8 tons per hectare. Presently, paddy crops are spread in an area greater than 3000 hectares involving 3500 farmers. This project has been carried out by the TIFAC, in collaboration with a farmer?s co-operative society, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and the Agricultural University in Pusa, Bihar. Using scientific method of farming involving soil characterization, matching the right seed to soil, seeding in time, fertilizer and pesticide selection, water management, pre and post harvesting methodology, productivity has been more than doubled. Imagine the impact if all the farmers in Meghalaya apply appropriate technology in the 1.1 lakh hectares of land presently being sown. The yield will go up from the present 1.7 tonnes per hectare to at least 3.4 tonnes p/h within a period of three years. Simultaneously, by using the technology, the input cost can also be brought down. The revenue of the farmer will be minimum doubled resulting in direct benefit to one lakh farmer families holding around one acre per family. This approach will enable availability of adequate rice for the State. The surplus rice, beyond the consumption of the people of Meghalaya, could be converted as ready made variety rice dishes and packaged for long term storage and export. This type of food processing and value addition will bring additional 10,000 jobs to the youth in the food processing units and also enhance the revenue to the farmer. The same technique could also be utilized for enhancing the productivity of maize, cotton and oil seeds.

b. Horticulture

Meghalaya has the potential for cultivation of Cash crops like pineapple, potato, ginger, turmeric, banana, papaya and several off-season vegetables. Emphasis is needed in the development of water harvesting and distribution infrastructure. Also, there is a need for increasing the level of mechanization to reduce the cost of cultivation in horticultural estates wherever it is possible based on terrain conditions. Research is required for developing high-yield low gestation period crops which will be suitable for use by the food processing industry. These activities have to be taken up in a mission mode leading to setting up of fruit and vegetable processing plants aimed at the export market. This will facilitate distant marketing of horticulture produce of Meghalaya and provide lucrative revenue for the Meghalaya farmers. The target for horticultural products should be set at around Rs. 250 Crore, from the present level of Rs.125 Crores. A very good infusion of advanced agricultural research, good water management and bio-technology are important ingredients for achieving this target. The 50% of the fruits and vegetables should be available for sale within Meghalaya. The residual 50% should be converted into processed fruits and vegetables. The value addition can lead to revenue of Rs. 1000 Crore to the farmers of Meghalaya which is eight times that of the cost of the raw vegetables and fruits. Agro processing should be done through a cooperative system so that the benefits go to the farmers directly. Meghalaya with its core competence in this area should be able achieve this target by the year 2012 if it commits itself to a mission mode approach with total cooperation from the farmers, the R&D community educational institutions and the government. This will be a wealth generator-cum-employment provider mission for the farmers of the state. The Meghalaya Government can take advantage of the National Horticultural Mission for technical, managerial and financial support for creating infrastructure and market for horticulture produce. These missions will double the revenue of over one lakh families who are presently deployed in horticulture. In addition, it will also provide additional employment in fruit and vegetable processing industries to over 10,000 youth. The State can lay emphasis on production of traditional cashew, khasi mandarin (orange), strawberry besides pineapple, turmeric, other medicinal plants and off-season vegetables.

c. Floriculture and Aromatic Plants

Meghalaya has all the potential for development of a successful orchid industry on scientific basis. It has varied and suitable climate and almost important commercial varieties of orchid including those of Cattleya, Scented Rose, Anthurium, Lilies etc., which can be grown for cut flower production. With this strength, Meghalaya should work on a mission of capturing at least $ 50 million of export business of orchids and other cut-flowers. This is definitely possible due to our diversified climate, low cost of labour and progressive farming technology. We have to only get suitable planting material for large scale cultivation and also acquire the technology for commercial multiplication. We should also master the post-harvest handling, storage and transportation technology for cut-flower production based on the experience of Thailand and Singapore who are major exporters of orchids. Singapore exports nearly 25 million dollars of orchids. Meghalaya teams in partnership with National Research Centre for Orchids (NRCO), Sikkim can definitely acquire the competence through a national and international connectivity and achieve the mission of exporting at least Rs.Two hundred and fifty crore of Orchids within the next five years. This mission will also provide productive employment for over 7500 youth of the State. Hon?ble Members, Govt. of Meghalaya and Central Government should ensure effective assured transportation of cut-flowers and other perishable commodities using North East Council as Coordinating agency to achieve the above target..

A mechanism is required for making central storage and testing facilities for the farmers in the key locations so that they can export their floriculture and herbal produce directly to the purchaser instead of handing over to middlemen at an uneconomic price. The Meghalaya government can invite pharma industries to set up a processing plant for producing value added herbal products such as herbal soap, herbal cosmetics and neutraceuticals. The State should aim for Rupees two hundred and fifty crore of herbal products to be produced and sold in the national and international market. This will provide value added employment to nearly fifteen thousand people from plantation to herbal products. It will be possible by creating affordable transportation of perishable commodities from difficult, distant and dangerous terrains of Meghalaya through air connectivity.

Mission 2: Education and Health Care

a. Education

I am happy to note that the literacy of Meghalaya at present is 62.5% which has to be increased to above 85% by 2012 and to 100% by 2017.

This can be achieved if each of the 16,000 college students and 44,000 high school students reach out during holidays to train and educate the people who cannot read and write. Then, we shall witness a unique experiment where nearly 60,000 educated population reaching out to around 5 lakh people who today do not know how to read and write. Each student will have to provide literacy to only 3 or 4 persons during a year. This will ensure removal of illiteracy within the next three to four years. This will be complementary to the other adult literacy programmes organised by the State and Centre. The results will be excellent leading to prosperity and happiness of Meghalaya.

Skills Development: While literacy is essential for every citizen, they are insufficient to acquire gainful employment. Having the right and economically relevant skills, becomes critical for those who only have education up to the levels of 8th std/10th std/12th standard pass. A large percentage of our young people belong to this category. They need to be trained to get into an employment or self employment. Skills can be in construction, repair, hotel work, hospital related paramedical work or retailing or as electrician or carpenter. There are several kinds of work. Modern competitive economy demands correct and quality skills. It is our duty to empower the citizen with such skills.

Value based creative and accelerated education: Our aim is to develop human resources with value system and entrepreneurial focus, leading to arresting the tendency of school dropouts which at present at the primary level is over 62% in Meghalaya. We have to create a mechanism for the children to learn and become creative through love and affection, hygienic practices and nutrition in the pre-primary stage. It is essential to identify the average and below average students and impart accelerated learning process with the help of computer-based creative content from 1st to 10th standard. Children should learn by themselves using computers. Teachers, parents, School Committee members become accountable for ensuring prevention of dropouts. Meghalaya can adopt the methods suggested above (M.R. Raju model and Azim Premji model) for reducing drop outs from rural schools. Apart from preventing the drop out, there is a need to qualitatively and quantitatively improve the output of education system from the primary, secondary and college education. The target should be to increase the enrolment to university education to 12,000 from the existing 6,000 by the year 2015. The entire education system has to work in a mission mode to achieve this target and provide quality education to the youth of Meghalaya through enhancement of educational institutions, laboratories, tools and also through tele-education system within the State and also in partnership with other State universities and schools.

b. Healthcare:

I have found that the main problem of provision of health service is the availability of the doctor, Para-medics and the necessary infrastructure. This has been a problem area in many of our primary health centers and even in district hospitals. To overcome the above, I would recommend an out-sourcing model of medical cover in which all the citizens of the State whose income is above the poverty line will make a monthly contribution of Rs. 10 for each member of the family. The revenue arising out of this fee in a year will be around Rs. 15.6 crore (13 lakh members above poverty line). Presently, the Government is spending around Rs. 60 crore for primary health in Meghalaya. The total Rs. 75.6 Crore can be considered as a yearly health fund. This fund can be utilized to provide premium for the outsourced medical cover to all the 23 lakh citizens of Meghalaya by having a public-private partnership who will be entrusted with the task of upgrading all the primary health care facilities manning them with qualified doctors, nurses and para-medics and also running mobile clinics and telemedicine system to remote areas. They will also have the responsibility of providing speciality and super-speciality healthcare to the needy in the nominated hospitals. The advantage of the system is provision of quality health care to all the citizens of the State at an affordable cost without undue pressure on State finances.

Mission 3: Water Management

Meghalaya State is blessed with water abundantly. It has several rain based rivers and some places in Meghalaya receives on an average 1200 cms. of rain every year. The rain pours continuously for eight months from April leaving four months almost dry in Meghalaya. It is essential to make use of this vital resource for the development of the State. The State has nearly 50% hilly terrain. The balance land is fit for cultivation provided proper water management and drainage is planned.

Meghalaya Water ways: To make the best use of the water available in plenty and to improve the living standard of the people in Meghalaya, there is a need for creating a waterway for proper storage for the water and making it useful for Agriculture, Drinking Water, Power Generation and Navigation. This will go a long way to create employment opportunity and poverty alleviation for the people of the State. The Meghalaya Waterways may have a length of about 350km as a contour canal at 500 m above Mean Sea Level (MSL). It can irrigate 35 lakh acres, generate 1500 MW of power, provide drinking water for 60% of the population throughout the year, have a navigation route for 350 km thus increasing the connectivity and also provide employment for large number of youth of the state. The waterways will also give enough protection from flash floods and from flood damage. It will also attract tourists.

Water harvesting:In the interim period when the Meghalaya water ways programme is in progress, I would recommend large scale water harvesting in the State by desilting the existing ponds and creation of large number of artificial lakes in all the villages of the State. This will enable conservation of the flood water, prevent water logging of the crops and provide adequate water during non-rainy days. Since pure natural water is available in the State, this resource can be utilized for producing mineral water and supplying to different parts of the country. To enable the farmers to use the water for irrigation, the government can think in terms of providing them with solar panel based water pumps in all the villages.

Mission 4: Bamboo Mission

This mission envisages an integrated programme of expansion of plantations of Bamboo species, the scientific management, and promotion of community level value addition and entrepreneurship. This will enable presenting the raw material for the industries and the industry to access and apply modern technology for producing globally competitive new generation bamboo products. This includes setting up of clusters of small value addition processing units, near the resource for employment generation and benefit to the local small entrepreneur. Processed raw material suitable for ultimate use in industry/handicraft sector will be required, for economizing handling cost of raw material to the location of industry proposed to be set up in different parts of the State. However to prevent the effects of Bamboo flowering, Meghalaya can consider maintaining a year wise census of the Bamboo farms so that the plants which have exceeded the life of 20 years or more are uprooted and systematic re-plantation is done.

The programme should envisage the cultivation of bamboo over ten thousand hectares of forest land in addition to the existing bamboo cultivation. The economic and social benefit from these activities, will lead to the creation of forty thousand jobs and the market opportunities worth over Rs. 100 crores with an investment of Rs. 25 crore. The value addition for the bamboo results into lifestyle articles, and handicrafts for export market. This value addition and marketing can be done in partnership with JETRO of JAPAN, North Eastern Hill University, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Institutes of Management in Meghalaya entrepreneurs and Meghalaya Government. Bamboo enterprises can become part of PURA Clusters.

Mission 5 : Tourism 

There are number of places of interest in Meghalaya which will be an attraction for the tourists. Meghalaya is blessed with picturesque landscape, conducive geo-ecological settings, salubrious climate, sparkling waterfalls, cascades, legendry & mythological sites, rich traditional culture and warm and hospitable people. The century old lake known as Polok lake is an important & beautiful tourist spot. Khasi and Garo tribes are popularly known for their traditional healing practices. The state has a strong base of traditional medicine, utilizing different types of locally available medicinal plants and herbs. The government and corporate hospitals should facilitate the traditional medical practioners to practice along with the other systems of medical practioners for providing an integrated healthcare to the people as well as tourists. The state offers some of the finest routes for trekking in both mild and difficult terrain. The southern slopes with high rocky cliffs have ample scope for the development and promotion of outdoor sports like climbing and abseiling. Majority of places in the rural areas of Meghalaya are associated with myths and legends. Training the local youth in the field of folklore for reciting legend, myths, and folktales during important events would help in promoting tourism.

The state government should enter into a public-private partnership agreement with tourism based institutions and industries who can create the total infrastructure from hotels, roads, water system, power systems, drainage system, medical cover, banking, wayside amenities, tourism spots on a build, own, operate and transfer model. The state government must provide land, infrastructural support, hassle free permission, license to operate for a minimum period to make the proposition profitable.

This will ensure large scale employment opportunities, since each tourist generates five jobs in the hotel, transportation, guiding and services sector. As per 2005, statistics Meghalaya received 3,75,000 national tourists and 5000 foreign tourists. You should aim at generating minimum 1 million national tourists and 50,000 foreign tourists by the year 2012. The required infrastructure in the form of roads, civic amenities, hotels, healthcare facilities have to be built on a mission mode. This will enable generation of over 2.5 lakh jobs for the youth in the tourism sector.

Mission 6 : Establishment of Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) for Rural prosperity

I have studied about Meghalaya terrain and the number of districts, towns and villages. Meghalaya and its regions require a unique Forest PURA due to the existence of varying terrain and forest conditions. I would recommend establishment of 10 PURA clusters for Meghalaya. This will provide four critical connectivities between villages located in different geographic locations enabling accelerated economic growth: physical, electronic and knowledge connectivity, leading to economic connectivity. The fund for the implementation of PURA has to come from annual budget of the State and the Bharat Nirman Programme of the Central Government. Let us study those connectivities.

Essential Connectivities: These are: physical connectivity of village clusters through quality roads and transport and waterways so that the villages will be connected by the road and water system and in turn into the high ways. Electronic connectivity through tele-communication with satellite, high bandwidth fiber optic cables, wireless reaching the rural areas from cities and through internet kiosks. This will enable the urban facilities like super speciality hospitals, educational institutions to provide value added services to rural areas. Knowledge connectivity provides education, skills training for farmers, artisans and craftsmen and entrepreneurship programmes. These three connectives will lead to Economic connectivity so that employment potential will increase through starting of small scale industries, food processing industries coming in a big way with the help of banks, educational institutions and micro credits. The Hon?ble Members of Meghalaya Assembly may like to see operational PURAs located in Aarang in Chhattisgarh, Periyar PURA in Tamil Nadu and Byrraju PURA in Andhra Pradesh.

Mission 7: Special Economic Zone 

In addition to the above six missions, I suggest establishment of three economic zones in Meghalaya. One at Shillong for herbal, aromatic, ginger varieties farming, leading to production of drugs, aromatic and ginger products for export. Another Economic Zone can be located in such a way that it attracts tourists in a place surrounded by water falls, with an open museum of all tribal culture something similar to what has been done in Chhatisgarh, orchid floriculture farms and also a science and technology park. Third economic zone can be centred around mining of special material and associated products. In view of the three Special Economic Zones suggested for Meghalaya, it is important to establish a full fledged airport for landing of modern jet aircrafts in Meghalaya. With the growth of technology in instrument landing system it should be possible to create an all weather air port in Meghalaya. These economic zones are definitely possible in Meghalaya where peace is prevailing and people are tourist friendly. SEZs will attract industries of pharmacy, biotechnology and hotel industries. These economic zones will create additional revenue of RS. 2,500 crore to the State with an employment potential of over 25,000 people.

Entrepreneurship

These 7 missions which I have discussed, will require generation of large number of entrepreneurs in the State through entrepreneurship programmes. The academic institutions in Meghalaya generate about 3000 graduates per year and the 10th class and 10+2 students will be around 10,000. All of them will seek employment either within Meghalaya, outside the state or abroad. Now the school syllabus and university syllabus have to be integrated with entrepreneurship courses. The students at the end of the course should get a certificate or a diploma. This will enable students qualified in these schools and colleges, to have the confidence that they can start the small enterprises in agriculture, manufacturing or services especially in the areas of agro-processing products, life style products from bamboo, managing tourism, small scale industries for handloom, handicraft products and creation of forest PURAs. Banks have to be entrepreneur friendly and should give them venture capital and support the young entrepreneurs and their creative ideas. This system will change the situation in all the states, particularly in Meghalaya by generating large number of employment providers rather than employment seekers.

Results of the mission 

Dear Hon?ble Members, may I now summarize the seven important missions for your consideration and implementation for sustained prosperity and empowerment of Meghalaya:

1. Agriculture, Horticulture and Floriculture: Enabling doubling of the income of 2 lakh families, provide employment for 42,500 youth. It will also generate export revenue of Rs. 500 Crore.

2. Education and healthcare: Achieving 85% literacy by 2012 and 100% literacy by 2017. Reduce drop out before secondary to less than 30%. Increase yearly enrolment in college to 32,000. Realising provision of quality healthcare to all the citizens of the State for a small fee of Rs. 10 per month per individual for people living above poverty line.

3. Water management: Water management will provide 350 kms of waterways, irrigation for 35 lakh acres, generate 1500 megawatts of power and provide drinking water for 60% people. Water harvesting (Similar to Malse Lake type) will ensure adequate availability of water during the non-rainy season for all the citizens for agriculture and drinking water.

4. Bamboo mission: Create handicrafts and cottage industries jobs for 40,000 youth and generate the revenue of over Rs. 100 crore.

5. Tourism: Increase the domestic tourist from 3,75,000 to one million and foreign tourist from 5,000 to 50,000. This will create 2.5 lakh additional jobs for the youth.

6. Establishment of PURA: Enable creation of ten PURA clusters spread through out the State which will bridge the rural-urban divide and increase the economic prosperity of 80% rural Meghalaya.

7. Special Economic Zone: Establishment of three economic zones will enable additional revenue of Rs.2500 crores and employment for 25,000 people.

Conclusion

I would like the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly to discuss all the seven missions and lead to progressive implementation, so that Meghalaya will become an economically developed state well before 2017. Great missions have to be born out of the great minds of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly. What is important at this point is political vision and convergence of all political parties to the mission of tranforming Meghalaya into a developed state. Meghalaya needs now creative leaders. What is the definition of creative leaders. Creative leadership means exercising the vision to change the traditional role from the commander to the coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitates self-respect. I am sure the Members of Legislative Assembly will create creative leaders including the rural areas.

I convey my best wishes to all the Hon?ble Members of Meghalaya Assembly and through them to all the people of Meghalaya success in their mission of transforming Meghalaya into an economically prosperous, happy, peaceful and safe State.

May God bless you.