It was a memorable moment for people of Garo hills in Meghalaya. After a gap of long 56 years they got chance to have a glimpse of their President.

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil visited the Garo hills yesterday and inaugurated the Baljek airport in Tura in Meghalaya. Baljek becomes the second airport in the hilly state.

The President congratulated the people of the state in a function organized at the newly inaugurated airport for focusing on building, critical infrastructure for development and said progress and prosperity cannot be realized without adequate infrastructure and a network of connectivity.

New Delhi, Oct 18 : President Pratibha Patil will begin her five-day tour to Assam and Meghalaya from tomorrow.

In Guwahati, the President will present the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award to noted film personality Shabana Azmi and Journalist Shekhar Gupta on Sunday.

On Monday, she is scheduled to give away the Nirmal Gram Awards. Gram panchayats comprising from 13 states of the Eastern and North Eastern part of the country will receive these awards formally.

Shillong (Meghalaya), Oct. 16 : North- East beauties glided down the ramp in glitzy beauty pageant contest organised by the Fashion Society, Shillong, in collaboration with the government-run North East Forum of Indigenous Culture and Arts.

The event is a big tourist attraction and provides a platform to many budding models and designers to showcase their talent.

The Miss North East Pageant has become an annual feature on the calendar of the north- east Indians. It is a major tourist attractor.

Shillong, Sep. 3 : The recent opening of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Shillong, the first in the entire region, has aroused interest among the youth here and from neighbouring States.

NIFT, which is considered to the be ''Mecca'' of learning for budding fashion designers, is believed to enable youngsters in this part of the country to hone their latent abilities and give their creativity an expression.

Meghalaya, Aug 4: A dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by the Meghalaya''s Garo Students Union (GSU) has started in three Garo Hills districts .

The failure of the government to punish ,the guilty of the September 30, 2005 police firing in which nine persons were killed ,is the focus of the shutdown call.

The Garo Students Union has said that if their demands are not met, they would intensify their agitation.

The GSU has been demanding an action against the guilty officials who were involved in the firing, which had taken place in 2005, killing nine civilians, mostly students.

Besides, they are also pressurizing the government on declaring September 30 as a state holiday, as a mark of respect to the victims.

Shillong, July 3: The first academic session of the country's seventh Indian Institute of Management (IIM), the Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM) in Shillong, will begin today.