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Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, on Monday attended the inaugural ceremony of 4th edition of the Shillong Literary Festival and called it an opportunity for local writers to gain more exposure and share their ideas and thoughts with writers from other parts of the country and even the world.
The festival came into full circle with the attendance of prominent authors like the famous Jackie Collins of India, Shobhaa De and Indian Novelist and Poet Vikram Seth who is also a recipient of Padma Shri and other awards. In his inaugural address, Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, said, "The main objective of the literary festival aims is to bring our writers together and provide them a platform since the people of the state have the interest, talent and most importantly the passion to write and this platform in the form of the literary festival would encourage them to share their work." He further added, "It is also an opportunity for our local writers to gain more exposure and share their ideas and thoughts with writers from other parts of the country and even the world." The Chief Minister also said that the other objective of the festival is to evoke the interest of reading and encourage our people to write and stated, "We have pressed on schools to participate as it would garner curiosity among students to inculcate the art of reading and writing." Stating about endeavours of the government to address challenges associated with festivals like the literary festival he said, "Meghalaya has a younger population in comparison to the rest of the country and we are trying to ensure that reading and writing becomes an integral part of development activities for our youth." The Chief Minister highlighted that the written art form is also a medium of documentation and research for preserving the rich culture and history of our people. He said that documentation is to be further strengthened and informed about the CM's Scholars Program where the government supports 50 research scholars in their endeavour to research and document various areas of the culture and society of Meghalaya. CM reiterated that the festivals that are held in the state are an investment towards the people to uplifting them through various means particularly tourism. In conclusion, the Chief Minister said that the government will spend about 4000 crores in the development of infrastructure towards tourism in terms of hotels, home-stays, amenities, facilities etc. (ANI)
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