NE States have good ties despite differences: Gogoi

Major Events Vol. 3 Issue No. 26

May 1-15, 2007

NE States have good ties despite differences: Gogoi

Despite differences between the seven North-East states on the boundary issue they have “best of relations” with each other, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said.

“We have differences and disputes over the boundary. But inspite of that we are moving as brothers,” he told reporters here last night adding it would take time to find a solution to the problem.“Nobody can say how long it will take ... But we are trying to solve the dispute amicably,” he said.

Assam has border disputes with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland with most of them alleging that the bigger State was encroaching their territories. Except Meghalaya and Mizoram the other States have approached the apex court.

Asked if he would take up the matter with his Meghalaya counterpart D D Lapang, Gogoi said discussions did take place and would be done again.“We involve local leaders and district councils... We are moving in the right direction.”

Meanwhile, criticising the national media for failing to project the true image of North-Eastern states, Union Tribal Affairs Minister P R Kyndiah and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi have said it had not been able to capture the real picture of the region.

“The perception of the national media about the North East is that it is full of militants and violence,” Kyndiah, who was here to address a function to mark the 15th anniversary of the publication of ‘Eastern Panorama’, said last night.

The bomb blasts and violence were not unique in the region but occurred in other parts of the country as well, he remarked. Quoting a study by Delhi-based Indian Institute of Public Administration, he said that 71.23 per cent of the villages in the North East did not report any crime.

Even the recent National Games in Guwahati or the peaceful Assembly polls in Manipur did not find space in most of the newspapers published from Delhi, he noted.

Echoing similar views, Gogoi said the national media was not doing ‘justice’ to the North East and there was a tendency to sensationalise and project a negative image of the region.

Citing an example, Gogoi said that while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to lay the foundation of the fifth bridge over Brahmaputra river went unreported, newspapers, however, carried the blast story in Guwahati the same day.

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