In an embarrassing moment, Union minister for development of north eastern region (DoNER) Dr Jitendra Singh on Friday tweeted about his meeting with Mizoram minister TJ Lalnuntlaunga, but wrote about being conveyed good wishes from the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha government in Gangtok, whereas he probably meant to say the Mizo National Front (MNF) government in Aizawl.
The faux pas has raised eyebrows among the people, especially for the fact that the DoNER minister’s job is to look after the affairs of the Northeast; hence a mix-up between the two states could have been unavoidable.
Meanwhile, in the meeting held with Mizoram minister for law and judicial, parliamentary affairs, transport, environment, forest and climate change TJ Lalnuntluanga in New Delhi on Friday, Singh expressed satisfaction that the ‘Centre of Excellence’ (CeO) for Citrus Fruit, located in Lunglei district of Mizoram, is availing of Israeli technology and has emerged as a unique institution of its kind in India.
The centre, which became functional last year, has started providing planting material and training to farmers with collaboration from Israel. Officers of the agriculture department of Mizoram have already received their training from Israel.
Singh said that it was an initiative of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that followed a tripartite collaboration between the government of Israel, Mizoram government and the Centre, with the ministry of DoNER performing the role of facilitator and coordinator. The technical support, planting material and capacity building is being provided by Israel and the Centre specialises in exclusively dealing with the processing of citrus fruits.