Ethnic welcome awaits Sonia at CMs' meet

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">guwahati: powerpoint presentations, ethnic food, local culture, a surprise song by a chief minister and a lot more await congress supremo sonia gandhi when she arrives in the city friday for the congress chief ministers'' conclave. besides fourteen chief ministers of congress-ruled states, the party top brass - including sonia gandhi, five aicc general secretaries and leaders of opposition and chief whips in both the lok sabha and the rajya sabha - will participate in the two-day-long deliberations."it''s an austere, very business-like event, with the focus on innovative schemes, launched by states within parameters of the congress manifesto and to be shared by participating chief ministers amongst themselves through powerpoint presentations", said aicc general secretary ambika soni, who personally went around supervising preparations at the conclave venue, hotel ashok bramhaputra. located on the banks of the mighty bramhaputra, the state-run hotel - completely blocked by the congress -is being spruced up for the occasion. hectic, last moment preparations are on in the huge lawns. the hedges are being trimmed while finishing touches are being given to the cultural programme and dining arena, modelled on traditional assamese architecture. hosts assam pradesh congress committee had taken their job rather seriously. chief minister tarun gogoi personally monitored preparations in a meeting with members of his cabinet and apcc office-bearers tuesday. at the hotel, young congress legislator himanta biswa sharma personally manned the assistance booth throughout the day, with the assam government''s mission statement - "we are a government that cares for its people" - in the background. chief minister gogoi explained: "our powerpoint presentation will be on the popular raijor podulit raijor sarkar (people''s government at its footsteps), a successful scheme that brought the government much closer to the people." even as hawk-eyed uniformed and plainclothes men of the state police maintained a steady vigil around the high-security hotel, home minister pradyut bordoloi, who is supervising security measures, said: "the entire area has been senitised. in one way, you can even say that the army is on standby, since they are part of the unified command structure, under which counter insurgency operations are carried in the state". in between brain-storming sessions, sonia gandhi and her party colleagues can tickle their taste-buds with a wide variety of ethnic dishes lined up by expert local cooks specially brought in from upper assam. "ethnic singpho food like topola bhaat (rice served in leaf), u chan chi (boiled chicken) and nga-chan-shu (baked bamboo fish) will be on offer, besides local assamese delicacies." another major draw would be a surprise presentation by a northeast chief minister which is slated for friday evening. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">related stories:</span><br /><img src="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//6586593-open//images//ticker.gif" alt="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//6586593-open//images//ticker.gif" border="0" /> <a href="articleshow.asp?art_id=6596453">cong not keen on grabbing power</a> </div> </div>