Shillong, Sept 27: A Regional Meet of State Legal Services Authorities of the North Eastern Region (NER) was organised by the National Legal Services Authority and Meghalaya State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA) at the State Convention Centre, here on Wednesday.
The meet was inaugurated by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Judge of the Supreme Court of India who is also an Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority.
In his inaugural address, Justice Gogoi said that 51 per cent of the population of India is below the age of 35.
“We have about 50 crores population between 15 and 29 years and this is a very volatile situation. The need is to reach out to these people. Even if we succeed in reaching out to 20 per cent of people Below Poverty Line, I think the very existence of NALSA would be justified,” Justice Gogoi said.
He said that the theme of the regional meet for the North Eastern Region was to find out whether NALSA has been able to reach out or not to people.
“If we have been able to reach out upto what extent, and if we have not, what should we do about it? This is the basic theme of today’s meeting and try to come to a conclusion as to how the Northeast was doing, and then compare the Northeast with the achievements in the rest of the country,” Justice Gogoi said.
Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court and Patron-in-Chief of Meghalaya State Legal ServicesAuthority and Justice Sudip Ranjan Sen, Judge, High Court of Meghalaya and Executive Chairman, Meghalaya State Legal Services Authority and Chief Justices and Executive Chairmen of the North Eastern Region and other guests attended the meet.