Several countries have given travel advisory to its citizens to refrain from visiting Northeast India following the insurgency and other troubled situations there.
However, Assam has made marked improvement on the law and order front and is almost free of major insurgency-related incidents in the last couple of years.
Sarma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that on February 24 Assam will be hosting a mega Jhumur dance performance and a delegation of 35 heads of missions, accompanied by their spouses, will visit Assam and Kaziranga National Park on February 23.
The visit is aimed at showcasing Assam to the world leaders so that they can review their travel advisories. “The internal purpose is to get travel advisories lifted,” he said.The delegation, led by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, will visit the World Heritage Site, Kaziranga.Sarma announced on Thursday that Modi, during his visit to Assam on February 24, will first witness the Jhumur performance at Sarusajai Stadium, followed by an exhibition at the Veterinary Field Ground in Khanapara later that evening.
Sarma said the PM has expressed his desire to spend about 40-45 minutes at the exhibition. “The exhibition, designed to showcase Assam’s cultural heritage and future aspirations, will feature two key galleries. One, named ‘Pride of Assam’, will display the state’s products, while the other, ‘Future of Assam’, will highlight the state’s development and modernisation efforts,” he said.
Assam is hosting the mega investment event ‘Advantage Assam 2.0: Investment and Infrastructure Summit’ on February 25 and 26 which will be inaugurated by the PM.
Sarma had said last week: “Getting this advisory withdrawn is a priority. Without travel advisory being withdrawn, one cannot have investments from foreign countries because if tourists cannot come for seven days how can people come for investment.”
Sarma had said, “Withdrawal of travel advisory is a very difficult thing and requires people’s support. There is likely to be a lot of queries from the foreign embassies over the next three weeks as we have officially asked everyone to withdraw the same. In the last three years, crime data has shown a reduction of 66%. There has been no adverse incident in Assam. The state is peaceful. However, reversing the advisory cannot be done by the CM. It has been a people’s movement, and we must give good vibes.”
