Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya celebrated their 47th Statehood Day on Monday.

The erstwhile princely states of Tripura and Manipur were merged into the Indian Union in October 1949 and became full-fledged states on January 21, 1972.

Meghalaya was part of Assam before becoming a full-fledged state under the North Eastern Region (Re-Organisation) Act, 1971.

Addressing the main function of the Statehood Day , Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said that his government's main goal was to make the state "drug free" and ensure efficient and transparent governance.

It was for the first time that Deb addressed the main function of the Statehood Day after becoming the Chief Minister around ten months ago after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in alliance with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) trounced the Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front.

"The BJP-IPFT government's main mission is to deliver efficient and transparent governance. The law enforcing agencies have maximised their insistent efforts to make Tripura a "drug free state", as declared by the BJP government," Deb said.

He said in the last ten months various law enforcing agencies have seized over 65,000 kg ganja (cannabis) and various other drugs and 660 people were arrested in connection with the drug menace.

The market rate of 65,000 kg of ganja is around Rs. 36 crore.

"With a decrease in drug related activities, crime against women has also reduced by 19 per cent during the past ten months," Deb said.

The Chief Minister said that with the digitisation of many government services and works, people are benefited in numerous ways and transparency has been established in governance.

In Manipur, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, while addressing a gathering at the Manipur Rifles parade ground, urged all sections of the society to extend their support to the government for all round development of the state.

In Meghalaya, a week-long programme on the theme, 'Celebrating Meghalaya-India', on the occasion of the 47th Statehood Day and the 70th Republic Day began on Monday in different districts.

--IANS

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