Source: Hueiyen News Service
Dimapur, September 27, 2009:
Union Minister of State for Rural development Agatha Sangma who visited Nagaland on Saturday called for "building of a new relationship" among the north eastern state speaking at the 35th annual social programme of Patkai Christian College.
Speaking as chief guest social programme, the young Parliamentarian said "We have different languages and cultures but there is something that binds us together".
Sagma in a more challenging tone said that India today is faced with a crisis of national integration and the challenges for the people of the North East are big.
"We need people from the North East who have the capacity to change the image of the region," and thrust the responsibility on the younger generation.
She urged students to take their responsibilities more seriously and carry their rich and valued culture forward and never to lose their identity.
Sangma also spoke highly of the institution and said Patkai Christian College is an institution set apart.
She gave credit to the founders of the institution for not only capacitating students with intelligence but also giving wisdom and opportunity to their spirituality.
Later, inaugurating the agri-link road, Temv�kar�, Sangma said that it is very rare for a Union Minister to see first hand the completion of a road under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Here also, Sangma expressed familiar characteristics of the topography having striking affinity with her home state.
Sangma further said that before she became an MP, she felt, her responsibility was limited to the Garo Hills but now her outlook has changed and her responsibilities increased.
In a span of a year since she became an MP she said "Today I feel very responsible for the north east." She shared her intentions to bring a positive change in the north east states during her tenure in the parliament.
"I believe, we as people with great values and faith must stick to our roots and we are here to work together," Sangma said.
The Medziphema Village Council, meanwhile, submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister seeking redress to the problem of water scarcity.
The Union Minister was accompanied by Lok Sabha MP C M Chang and a host of state legislators, Nationalist Congress Party leaders and bureaucrats.