Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Nov 24 (ANI): Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh on Sunday visited the 'Destination North East' festival being held at Banaras Hindu University here and interacted with various participants.Outlining Central government's commitment towards development of North East he said that Northeast model of development and opportunity is now being replicated across India and this has been possible because of a concentrated effort to familiarize people, particularly youth, in different parts of the country about what all Northeast could offer to each one of them, DoNER Ministry said in a release.Going around various stalls and interacting with participants and visitors, majority of them youth, on the second day of the 4-day festival he added, that the response to the event has been overwhelming and despite examinations going on in some departments of University, students were seen visiting the stalls in large numbers and intermingling with their counterparts from Northeast. He emphasised that this was a vindication of the contention that he always held that as soon as the enormous potential and avenues of Northeast are made familiar to people living in other parts of India, there would virtually be a bee-line of explorers and aspirants heading for North East India.Making particular mention of bamboo, Singh pointed out that this is for the first time perhaps, that there was an extensive showcase of the various aspects of bamboo use including a bamboo idol of Buddha and a bamboo-model depicting the holy Kamakhya temple.The positive outcome of this, he said, has been that youth in large numbers are visiting the venue to understand how best they could also take the benefit of bamboo in supplementing livelihood sources and bringing ease of living,"There are huge reserves of bamboo even outside Northeast, including in Central India, but there was little awareness and knowledge about it and therefore, it could not be put to optimum use. We have tried to educate the common citizens, particularly youth, about how best each one of them can introduce bamboo into his life routine, particularly after Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has amended the Indian Forest Act to exempt home-grown bamboo from it," he added. (ANI)

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