Developmment tops new Governor’s agenda   
Newly appointed Nagaland Governor K. Sankaranarayanan reveals that the Centre plans to invest Rs 50,000 crore in the region.    

North East News Agency

The Centre is pumping in huge amount of money and resources to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore to upgrade road infrastructure in eight states of the country’s North-East region, affected by insurgency, as part of its plan to develop the region by linking it with Southeast Asia. K. Sankaranarayanan, Governor of Nagaland said in an interview that the Union government has planned to invest Rs 50,000 crore for improving road connectivity in the country’s Northeast, as part of its efforts to boost economy of the region.

Former Kerala Finance Minister Sankaranarayanan, who was last month appointed governor of Nagaland, is upbeat that such ambitious plans of the government would link the country’s Northeast, a landlocked region with Southeast Asia.

“Indian government officials and officials from the North-East are meeting in Guwahati, the commercial nerve centre of the region, in the first half of March to discuss the road infrastructure programme and other development schemes for the region,’’ he said.

Large parts of India’s North-East, connected to mainland India by a narrow strip of land, is still remote and lack proper road infrastructure which is hampering development work, he said, adding, “as the Governor of Nagaland developing the road network is one of my priorities.”

Sankaranarayanan, said, Northeast region including Nagaland has quality human resources which was yet to be tapped. “My role as a Governor in Nagland will be to put emphasis on this sector specially education.’’

He said, he would like to focus on developing professional colleges – engineering and medical in Nagaland, which would offer new opportunities for the youth of the region. “These courses would help them to get jobs in any part of India and across the globe.’’

“Professional education would also help the youth to acquire entrepreneurial skills and boost the economy of the state,’’ the Nagaland governor stressed.

Pointing out that a sound and developed economy would help to address the long-standing problem of insurgency in Nagaland, he said, only through right education and employment opportunities that the issue of separatism can be addressed.

Nagaland has been witnessing Asia’s longest running insurgency since 1950s. However, there is relative peace in the state since the past decade following ceasefire accords between the Central government and both factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN). The government of India is holding peace talks with NSCN (I-M) to resolve the imbroglio. The key demand of the group is creation of a “Greater Nagaland” comprising existing Nagaland and Naga majority areas of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. But the states are opposed to this demand.

Peace is being restored in North-East with the Centre entering into ceasefire accords with various rebel outfits across the region. The Centre has also launched ambitious plans to economically develop the region by offering them concessions and schemes and trying to link the region with stronger economies of Southeast Asia. The region continues to be of strategic importance to India as it shares boundaries with Bangladesh , Myanmar , Bhutan and China and therefore security concerns are also imperative before the Centre.

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