Insurgency is waning in the North-East

Insurgency is waning in the North-East, according to the region's top officials, who asked investors to give a fillip to the economies of the natural resources-rich eight States of the region.

The Governor of Assam, Lt. Gen. Ajai Singh, said that insurgency in the State had come down and that the region, endowed with abundant mineral and forest resources, a vast base of educated human resources and attractive packages of incentives offered a great opportunity for starting industries.

Lt. Gen. Singh said the North-East offered numerous opportunities in manufacturing, agro-based industries, plantation, tourism and infrastructure. The region had the potential to generate 34,000 MW of hydroelectricity, but tapped only 668 MW, he said. He was inaugurating a workshop on "Challenges and Opportunities before the North-East" at the Indian Merchants' Chamber.

Lt. Gen. Singh said there was great potential in the area of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP).  A $60 billions global trade growing at the rate of seven per cent a year and expected to touch $5 trillions by 2050. He said it could generate millions of jobs. The North-East supplies as many as 44 MAPs.

The bark of a tree called taxus wallichiana was being smuggled out of Arunachal Pradesh ended up in the U.S. through Bangladesh, Lt. Gen. Singh said. The Americans made an anti-cancer drug from it and charged India Rs. 2.5 lakhs for a vial, he said. The North-East had a great potential for vanilla cultivation, he said and pointed out that Madagascar earned half its GDP from cultivating vanilla.

The Planning and Development Minister of Assam, Himanta Sarma, said Assam was free from insurgency, barring stray incidents. But the people in other parts of the country had a wrong image because the media would only magnify such occurrences while ignoring positive happenings, he said.

Mr. Sarma said the media, which would give so much publicity to a bomb blast, had, for instance, nearly ignored the Indo-Asean car rally in the region flagged off by the Prime Minister. Recently, New Delhi signed an agreement with Myanmar for a gas and petroleum pipeline through the North-East and Bangladesh to Kolkata. Tripura Industries and Commerce Minister, Tapan Chakraborti, said his was a power surplus State where tariffs were among the lowest in the country.

The State was also rich in natural gas, capable of producing about 4 million cubic metres a day, but used only 1.3 million cubic metres. Tripura offered gas at a concessional rate, he said. Insurgency is waning in the North-East, according to the region's top officials, who asked investors to give a fillip to the economies of the natural resources-rich eight States of the region.

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