While addressing a mid-term council meeting of The Indian Engineers Federation (INDEF) North Eastern Region (NER) at the Tourist Lodge, Chaltlang, here Mr Lal Thanhawla said, "As India is a land of diversity, it is very important that the people know each other to maintain national integrity." The Chief Minister was pained by the fact that majority of mainland Indians, including the central leaders, had often mistaken him for a foreigner, and that they could not locate Mizoram in the map of India.
"I had to make such statement because Mizoram is one of the least known and least visited places in India," he said slamming some mainland journalists who made a one-day visit to Mizoram and filed baseless stories about Mizoram and acted as though they knew everything.
Talking about the Indian economy, Mr Lal Thanhawla was optimistic that India could become one of the world's largest economic powers.
"This is reflected in central government's programmes like IAY, PMGSY besides mega projects such as ongoing East West Corridor under the national highways projects," he said.
He also pointed out several projects undertaken with the aids of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and urged the engineers to give top priority to quality.
The chief minister stated that Mizoram, along with the rest of North Eastern states, had undertaken a number construction projects being looked after by the state engineers.
He reiterated the importance of conserving ecology and environment in the process of executing developmental works.
The day-long meet was hosted by the Mizoram Engineer Service Association.
The meeting discussed and deliberated on a 12-point agendas in the second session. Engineers from all NE states, except for Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, were represented.