GUWAHATI, Feb 7 - Gauhati University (GU), in collaboration with the North Eastern Council (NEC), is organising a two-day national conclave on the Brahmaputra river basin from February 12 to deliberate upon a range of issues concerning the Brahmaputra basin, which has a trans-boundary character.
The university is also going to set up a �Centre for Brahmaputra Studies� as part of a capacity building initiative for focused research on various aspects of the Brahmaputra basin.
A GU press release here today said about 150 individuals from different parts of the country representing the knowledge institutions, government agencies and departments, besides individual experts, planners and policy makers, are expected to take part in the two-day event.
The conclave is mandated to come out with a set of viable action plans on relevant issues in conformity with the vision of translating ideas into actions.
Talking to this newspaper, GU Vice-Chancellor Dr Mridul Hazarika said that DoNER Minister and NEC Chairman Dr Jitendra Singh will inaugurate the conclave at 10.30 am on February 12, while Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will attend the function as the chief guest. State�s Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta will also attend the function as a distinguished guest.
The initial idea to set up the �Centre for Brahmaputra Studies� was floated by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, when he was a Union Minister. The GU sent its proposal on the centre to the State government immediately after Sonowal�s suggestion was received in this regard. In the 25th GU convocation, DoNER Minister Dr Singh was invited and when he was told of the proposal, he announced in the convocation itself that the GU would soon be setting up the centre.
The formal proposal for setting up the centre was sent to the State�s Planning Department about two years back and the Ministry of DoNER issued an advisory last year to the NEC to examine the proposal. Recently, the NEC forwarded the proposal to the DoNER.
All deliberations of the conclave will be documented so that the ideas could be translated into action, said Dr Hazarika.
