Shillong, June 09 : Tourism Minister Bah Paul Lyngdoh today inaugurated the Cluster Development Fund Project at Lum Symper, in the presence of Local MLA Ollan Suin, Dy CEM KHADC Bah P.N Syiem, Local MDC Bah Alvin K Sawkmie, officials from the MBMA, CLLMP and others.
Speaking at the gathering Bah Paul Lyngdoh appreciated the Raid Saw Symper for the initiatives of preserving the environment. This day should remind us that if we talk about development we should see the development that’s sustained, the development that comes through destroying the environment, is not development but it’s a development that crawls.
“We are happy that the forest cover in the state of Meghalaya is about 76 %, but one thing that we should understand is as indigenous tribe the first relationship for us is with the environment and we take our environment as our Mother,’ he added.
He also said that such thinking should be in us since there is no short cut for development, it is our duty to thank the community for taking these steps to teach others . There is no development that happens without cooperation with society.
He also said, “ We have seen others villages like Sohra and others in the beginning they depends on farming, after that they turned it to mining, event for the MCCL the assembly committee have suggested to turn it as the Museum, its show that it will not last long, it helps only for some times. Instead, it increases the economic divide between the rich and the poor, it will increase the landlessness, the answer for this is only tourism.
He also said that we should wake up and remind the youth, that this earth that we live on doesn’t belong to us, but we need to take care and hand it over to our children. He also assured the Raid Saw Symper that they will work together to strengthen and preserve this place.
