State Geological Programming Board (SGPB) held its meeting at Geology and Mining office conference Hall, here, on Friday.
Addressing the meet as guest of honour, minister for soil and water conservation and geology and mining, V Kashiho Sangtam asserted that mineral industry was the backbone of a nation’s economy and growth.
Minister said that Nagaland had been blessed with substantial mineral resources, but the exploitation of the minerals for the state’s economic benefit still remained a “far cry” reality. The minister also pointed out that growth and development were positive impacts of rapid urbanisation.
He however said that this resulted in numbers of negative impactssuch as depletion of groundwater, risk of people living in landslides prone areas and other anthropogenic (man-made) disasters, etc. In this regard, he appealed the department to formulate judicious policies in order to mitigate the impending disasters and challenges. He expressed hope that the meeting would ignite new ideas in order to tackle the challenges hindering progressive work of the department in particular and also stimulate clear perspective for economic development.
Meanwhile, delivering the welcome address, joint director Abenthung Lotha said that the SGPB had a long tradition of holding annual meeting to update professional knowledge, exchange ideas and work progress in similar field of interest and discussion of new perspective to accelerate geological activities in the state. He further stated that the department has been generating substantial revenues through implementation of coal policy and minor mineral concession rules. However, Abenthung stressed on the urgent need for systematic exploration and evaluation of mineral resources in line with national mineral resources classification and reporting system to open more opportunities and investors in the mineral industry.
Earlier, the programme was chaired by commissioner and secretary, K LibanthungLotha.