Tura, July 8: Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma today said United Nation has agreed to accord special consultative status to North Eastern states for UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
“I am pleased to announce that UN has decided to accord a special consultative status to North Eastern states to ECOSOC”, he said, while addressing the inauguration of United Nations Resource Centre – Institute of Vocational and Entrepreneurship (UNIV) at Tura.
ECOSOC’s discuses and debates on issues and policy recommendation in world’s economic, social and environmental challenges. It was founded by UN charter body in 1946.
It has broad responsibility for some 70 per cent of the human and financial resources of the entire UN system, including 14 specialized agencies, 9 “functional” commissions, and five regional commissions.
Mukul Sangma heads Indian federation for United Nations Association (IFUNA) as its “chairman”. Under his guidance, three UN resource centre and UN libraries were recently launched at Shillong, Tura and Ampati.
He told that one such centre will be opened in Nagaland and Mizoram soon as UN has given its formal go ahead.
He also inaugurated a help desk to facilitate admission for various courses to be run at UNIV for students from Garo hills.
He said, “Six month diploma courses on masonry, apparel design and carpentry will be introduced from August next. We will request as many student to apply for this sponsored courses, so that we can access the required number of interested applicants for such courses and plan accordingly”.
In April this year, a Mock UN General Assembly on Climate Change of the first batch of students of the Institute of UN studies of the UN Association in Shillong was inaugurated.
The chief minister also told that UN is willing to assist North Eastern states for various initiatives which will be taken in the region.
“This will open a new chapter of engagement and create an enabling environment for learning. We would like to work with all agencies of the United Nations to harness the benefit of their experience in other parts of the world in order to find appropriate solutions to problems of poverty, access to health care, education, among others”, he said.(SP News)
