THE occasionally active North East Council held its 48th meeting at Gangtok. There were the usual demands, calls and exhortations besides of course the emphasis on schedules and timely executions. After a bout of speeches, the leaders dispersed to their states.

As Union Minister in charge of the region, C P Thakur was the star speaker at the talking shop. He did not disappoint. He stuck to his usual refrain though – complete projects on time. He held out a promise of more radio and TV stations. “DONER has taken up with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for expanding the network of the All India Radio and Doordarshan in the region”, he said.

Assam Governor Ajai Singh, spoke of the need for keeping a strict vigil in the process of implementation of the NEC sponsored schemes all over the region. Nagaland Governor Shyamal Datta has suggested creation of a task force to make an in-depth analysis of socio-economic condition before drawing the outline of the integrated special economic zone. He called for private investments to sectors like power, oil, gas and other mineral resources.

“Huge investments in mega power projects by the NEC have adversely affected the growth of agriculture, health and human resource development, felt Datta. He hoped that the NEC would invest in only mini power projects to develop power generation network in villages by tapping hydro source coming down from the hills. This he said would check migration to urban areas and the growing number of white collared job seekers.

The Governor further requested the NEC to set up a micro study to assess what share the North-Eastern region would have from the projected 40 million new jobs that are expected to be available in the country by 2020. This micro study should also see what the NEC should do to link the future of “our boys and girls in the North-East to this projected booming employment market”.

On the role of the media, Datta took Doordarshan to task saying that the local Kendras of all the states in the North-East, “except perhaps Guwahati” are unable to play their role as agents of change due to absence of vision, planning and staff. He said, “I want to remind the media and the corporate sector that the North-East is not Guwahati… it is only its gateway’ adding that this mindset has to change as it neither helps Guwahati nor the media.”

Meghalaya Governor M. M. Jacob has said their (militants’) so-called movement does not have people’s support and only economic development can bring in the desired change. “The North-East will overcome insurgency in the days to come if the economic development of entire North-Eastern states is put on a fast track. With the formation of Ministry for the Development of North-Eastern Region (DONER), things are taking shape and it is a question of time now,” said Jacob.

Pointing out the major hurdles in the developmental process, the Meghalaya Governor said, infrastructure is the real bottlenecks. “There are not much employment opportunities for the youth. Besides there is a lack of road connectivity and lack of adequate power supply,” he said. A comprehensive economic development can only bring prosperity in the NE and would to a great extent solve the insurgency problem, Jacob said.

Noting that the eight NE states share their 5,000-km plus border with Myanmar, Bangladesh, China and Bhutan as against a “porous”, less than 30 km of strip which connects the region with the mainland, Jacob said, “Insurgents create trouble in the country and escape for shelter to these neighbouring countries.”

Jacob admitted that the entire North-East is in the grip of many other major problems besides insurgency. “Besides illegal migration, peddling of narcotics, arms and human beings are also posing a threat to the North-East. However, the situation is not very alarming,” he said adding, “Certain things are bound to happen”.

On why the North-East has failed to curb insurgency while Punjab has overcome the same problem, Jacob, a former Union Minister of State for Home said, “The dimension of militancy in the NE is not like Punjab. There are no continuous operations here; only sporadic incidents take place.”

Jacob was all praise for MLAs of Meghalaya, saying they treat the Assembly as a “shrine of democracy”. There are no incidents of slogan shouting, entering the Well of the House as protest measures during sessions. The democratic values are held in high esteem, Jacob added.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the North Eastern Council should urge upon the Prime Minister to increase allocation to the Council as the present allocation is not adequate to deal with the infrastructure requirement. He said the allocation of Rs 3500 crore to the NEC under the 10th Plan is not adequate to cope up with the requirement. He said that several of the Central Ministries failed to invest 10 per cent of their outlays in the non- lapsable pool of central resources every year. He said that the Department for Development of North eastern Region (DONER) should inform the States

about the quantum of funds credit to the Pool and release the full amount for the implementation of the approved schemes.

Gogoi hoped that the demand for releasing the non lapsable pool funds as hundred per cent grant would get favourable response from the Central Government. The Chief Minister have stressed the need for giving a boost to information technology in the region and said that the NEC should establish a regional institute of information technology in Guwahati. He urged upon the NEC for giving emphasis on development of tourism and observed that the recent initiatives like expansion of air connectivity would give a big boost to tourism in the region. He also called upon the NEC to set up a Regional Tourism Promotion Centre at Guwahati to attract tourists to the entire region.

He admitted that lack of quality educational institutions in the rural areas affected the education scenario as a whole and said that the NEC should consider setting up of Navodaya Vidyalaya type institutions in all the development blocks within a specific time frame. He further stressed the need for taking up specific programmes for the youths of the region with special emphasis on NCC, which would also promote self-discipline and national integration among the youth of the region.

The Assam Chief Minister said that the NEC should take up with the Government of India the issue of treating floods in his state as a national problem and seek financial support for mitigating the problem. The issue of state share of centrally sponsored projects was also raised by Gogoi, who expressed the view that all the State Governments of the region should collectively take up with the Centre for bringing down the state share to 10 per cent from the existing 25 per cent.

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga announced the setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Mizoram.”Setting up of the SEZ in Mizoram had been included under the 10th five year plan of the NEC Secretariat in April,” he said.

”The State Government is very keen to avail the facilities of SEZ for its great export potential of processed and semi-processed surplus of agricultural, horticultural and forest based products of Mizoram to our neighbouring South-east Asian countries,” he added. “We have also initiated several projects to build up infrastructure that compliment the proposed SEZ, he said. The Chief Minister thanked the NEC for agreeing in principle to finance the Bairabi Hydro-electric Project.

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