THE Meghalaya government has announced inclusion of several vocational courses in the school curriculum from the next academic year. Chief minister D D Lapang said lack of vocational training is the cause of unemployment among youth. According to him unemployment was encouraging youth to join underground or criminal groups.Horticulture for developmentHORTICULTURE has been identified as another important area for bringing about economic development in the northeast. Given this background, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 585 crore under the technology mission for integrated horticulture development for the eight northeastern states that has to be spent by the end 2007. This amount will be spent on setting up cold storages, promotion of post-harvest management technologies, creation of production infrastructure and a marketing network.Shillong goes full speedMEGHALAYA’S picturesque capital Shillong has found place in the adventure sports map of the country with the inauguration of the first-ever speedway park in eastern India last week. The park has tracks for bike racing and other facilities for speed-lovers. The Meghalaya government hopes adventure tourists will flock to the state.Tripura’s lost names to returnTHE Left Front government in Tripura last week announced its decision to reintroduce old tribal names of places and rivers which had been changed after the arrival of a large number of non-tribals in the erstwhile princely state. The decision has been a follow-up of the provisions of a peace accord with the All Tripura Tribal Force (ATTF) that was singed way back in 1993. The move was perhaps prompted by the overwhelming support the tribals gave the Left Front during the April elections.
