Meghalaya: 36th Inter-University North East Zone Youth festival begins at USTM

The 36th Inter-University North East Zone Youth Festival ‘Yuva Pratibha’ is being organised by the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) under the aegis of the Association of Indian Universities New Delhi (AIU) from 4th to 8th January at the University campus.

Notably, the opening ceremony begins with the hoisting of the flags of USTM and AIU. 

The flag hoisting ceremony has done by Prof. G.D. Sharma, Vice Chancellor, USTM, Professor SK Sharma of AIU and Professor of IIT Bhubaneswar and Convener Editor of Youth Festival Polly Borgohain. 

The flag hoisting was followed by a colourful cultural procession. The participating teams of each university showcased the vast ethnic colourful culture of the North East.

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Speaking on the occasion, USTM Chancellor Mahbubul Haque said, "Our university is now embarking on a mission to expand sports and cultural activities as we have students from all communities from different parts of the North-East here and there is a lot of talent in the field of sports in the region."

It is to be mentioned here that Bimal Borah, minister of Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam, and other dignitaries, inaugurated the Youth Festival on January 4.

A colourful cultural procession was held with the participation of student contestants of the youth festival, where they displayed the ethnic mosaic of the North East. 

Some of the universities participating in the youth festival are Gauhati University, Cotton University, Bodoland University, ICFAI University, Tripura, Tezpur University, Dibrugarh University, National Sports University, North Eastern Hill University, Rajiv Gandhi University, Dhanamanjuri University, Manipur University, Manipur University of Culture, Royal Global University, Indian Institute of Information Technology Guwahati.

Some of the competitions to be conducted during the youth festival are western and classical vocal and instrumental, group dance (Folk/Tribal), skit, Mehandi, spot painting, elocution, collage making, spot photography, clay modelling, debate, folk orchestra, cartooning, rangoli, quiz, mime and mimicry.