Shillong, December 29, 2021: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday inaugurated the Mao Students Union (MSU) Makhel Heritage Conclave commemorating its 88th anniversary and conference under the theme, “Rekindling our Heritage” at Makhel in Manipur alongside Manipur Deputy Chief Minister Joykumar Singh Yumnam.
Speaking at the historic programme of the Mao Community, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma lauded the student body for putting up a grand programme to mark the 88th year of the Student Union’s formation.
He spoke at length on the importance of balancing politics and culture to safeguard people’s identity, heritage and enable people to connect to their roots. “We should balance our identity and heritage and work with the core philosophy to promote our identity vis-à-vis ensure economic growth of our people,” he said.
He said that India’s strength and challenge lies in its youth and it is imperative that the youth energy and potential is channelised in a constructive manner. “Our youth is our greatest strength… it could also turn out to be destructive if their potential o is not channelised into constructive work. Our Nation will progress if our youth are involved in national building,” he added.
He informed the gathering on Meghalaya’s youth policy that focuses on engaging the youth in a productive manner.
“The Youth Policy in Meghalaya will focus on “One Skill One Talent” making sure that every youth should get one skill and be allowed to hone their talent,” he said.
“The greatest strength of India is the Youth. And so we must ensure they give them importance, shape them in the right way so that they become empowered & independent citizens for our state, for the region and for the country as a whole.”
“The youth of the Northeast, especially the tribal should come out beyond the reservation mindset to compete with the rest of the world,” he asserted.
“My other message to our youth and this is a concept that my father used to always talk about. and that is about competition. (L) P A Sangma believed in competition. And he used to say that the youth of the northeast, especially the tribal need to start coming out of this reservation mindset and that we must go “Beyond Reservation”.
“By saying this he or I don’t mean that reservation should go away but it is the mindset that we must change and we must realize that we will need to compete with the rest of the world one day and we cannot go on thinking that we will get reservation.”
“We need to develop a competitive mindset. We need to realize that we are as good as others if not better and then he can compete with anybody not just in this country but in the whole world and so the mindset of the youth needs to change and we have to encourage them to start thinking big.”
He also informed the gathering on the early child development program, which the State of Meghalaya is soon starting. “Meghalaya will be getting funding from the World Bank almost close to 150 Cr for an early childhood development program and we will be one of the first states in the country to be doing that,” he added.
“I am very happy that we are starting this special program run for adolescent girls and boys starting with a program for the girls first which will then supplement our vision and mission for the Youth Policy for overall development of our youth.”
Mao Students Union is one of the oldest Students Organization in Northeast and was founded in the year 1933. The Mao Students Union during its 88 years of existence have contributed for socio-economic development of the Mao community and the people of the region.