Date: Mar 14, 2023
The delegate of 40 youth of Meghalaya and 5 staff of nehu which is on an intercultural exchange tour of NEHU has been exploring the rich culture and heritage of Uttar Pradesh. After their arrival at the Lucknow Railway station, the team was received emphatically by the Yuva Sangam team of Uttar Pradesh represented by the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow and the irctc team. The same day the youth of Meghalaya visited the Rajbhavan of Uttar Pradesh and had interaction with the Principal Secretary of the Governor, Smti. Kalpana Awasthi. The Principal Secretary explained to the students the working of the secretariat of the Raj Bhavan. The students on their part shared about the culture and heritage of the state of Meghalaya with the staff of the Governor House of Uttar Pradesh. After the interaction, the youth were given a tour of the Raj Bhavan compound which included various areas like agricultural area, bird’s sanctuary and different halls of the Raj Bhavan building which itself is a heritage site being the residence of the Nawabs of Lucknow during the Mughal and the British India era. The youth were then taken to the famous Bada Imambara of Lucknow. One of the students being awed by the beauty of the structure asked the teacher incharge of the tour “How did the people during those times build structures like these with technology and machines, yet back home our dome designed by architects and engineers do not survive even for six months?” In the evening session, the youth of Meghalaya were introduced to the students of BBAU, Lucknow in the buddy session where they exchanged numbers to get acquainted and help in learning about the life in the university as well as Uttar Pradesh.
The second day saw the students visit the CSIR – Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and Kukrail Reserve Forest for an educational tour. The students learnt about various medicinal plants and their uses which are also found in the north-eastern region of the country. The students also visited the captive breeding and conservation centre for freshwater gharials and the turtles in the Kukrail Reserve Forest which are endangered animals in the IUCN list. The students were enthralled by the scientific and environmental research being done in the CSIR lab and the captive breeding centre of the Kukrail Reserve Forest. It may be mentioned that the Yuva Sangam Intercultural Exchange is the pilot programme under the aegis of the Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Mission started by the Ministry of Education, GoI.