The North-East region was uniquely disadvantaged by the Partition. It was isolated from the main centres of trade and industry. It lost its vital and traditional communication links to the mainland. Only two per cent of the border is linked with the mainland. Indeed, no other part of the country, barring Jammu and Kashmir, has had to bear a comparable burden with severe market disruption, total isolation and loss of traditional communications infrastructure, all of which pushed regional costs and prices well above the national norms. This rendered normal market production processes in the region less attractive and state intervention more costly. Primarily because of this, and a neglect from the Centre together with inefficiency in the State, multiple insurgency movement arose in the region. In fact, no part of the country has been so raven by prolonged and multiple insurgencies that have led development to ransom. It is only in the 50th year of Independence that the Central Government is beginning to realise the depth of the problem.

The Centre had recognised early that a regional approach to economic and other issues was essential and thus, created the North East Council (NEC) in 1972. But unfortunately, the North East Council could not function effectively which has generated a lot of criticism. It was unable neither to perform as a ‘think tank’ , nor could it provide a forum to device and implement regional solution to problems. Instead, it has become a forum for petty squabbles amongst the states, fighting for money which they could not spend or ill spend. The high-level commission appointed by the Prime Minister in 1986 made a number of significant recommendations, as a result of which some amendments to the North East Council Bill were made in Parliament. Much more needed to be done to revitalise the North East Council.

The North-eastern states, on the other hand, have to realise that their future lies in holding together; That they should solve their boundary disputes amicably with a give and take attitude; and that all MPs, irrespective of their party position, should support each other on regional economic issues and programmes in Parliament.

Border disputes between the states, particularly those involving Assam, need to be settled amicably and expeditiously. Without the settlements, development is held to ransom. Work cannot progress on giant dam projects on the Brahmaputra and its northern tributaries unless Arunachal and Assam settle their disputes; similarly, the Tipaimukh Dam project with 1500 MW generating capacity in Assam, on the Assam-Manipur-Mizoram border, cannot take off without Manipur recognising the regional problems. Here again, the high-level commission made some pertinent recommendations. It said, ‘it might also be worth exploring the ideas of freezing the disputed areas, say for 25 years and developing them with Central assistance into infrastructure and industrial hubs for hill-plains interchange. These could provide sites for airfields, railways warehousing, cold storages, market yards, regional institutions, medicine and large industry, processing units, and centres for persons displaced by dams and development in the hills.

The liberalisation policies of the Central Government have not really helped the North-East states for the want of basic infrastructure and a private sector which can take advantage of these new policies. Indeed, the gaps between the richer states and the North-East states have widened. This calls for state intervention through policies and programmes.

The former prime minister, Mr. Deve Gowda, emphasised North-East development as one of the corner stones of his policy. He recognised the long neglect of the region and its consequences. As a result, he offered a development package of Rs. 6100 crore essentially for infrastructure in 1996. He followed this up with the setting up of a high-level commission and a committee on educated unemployed. Both submitted their reports. The former submitted its report, called ‘Transforming the North-East —— Tackling Backlogs in Basic Minimum Services and Infrastructure Needs’, in March 1997. Prime Minister Gujral in late 1997 increase the package to Rs. 7300 crore to include a few more urgent infrastructure projects. A new North-East Industrial Policy initiative package has also been announced after cabinet approval. The 9th Plan also puts North-East development as one of the central objectives of the Plan. Quite a number of things are happening. But the announcement of the package is not enough. It has to be followed up, funds have to be appropriated, programmes have to be implemented. Prior to the setting up the high-level commission and committee on educated unemployed, there were a number of commisssions and committees on the North-East. Nothing much was achieved by them. The people of the North-East have become cynical. If this time, after announcing these packages, nothing much happens, the people of the North-East cannot be blamed for becoming utterly cynical. I have already seen in the Central Government administration a certain amount of complacency. After the elections, whichever party or parties form the Government, the North-Eastern MPs and Chief Ministers must take up the implementation of the recommendations of the high-level commissions and the committee on educated unemployed expeditiously with the incoming Prime Minister.

While dealing with the Centre, I have found that no one ministry is responsible for the North-East. The Home Ministry looks after the North East Council. That’s all. If attention is to be focussed on the development of the region, then there must be a central body at the Centre to coordinate and push all the programmes for the North-East with various ministries and agencies of the Central Government. Without this, the desired effect will not be achieved. This is not necessarily to urge for a separate ministry for the North-East, but to allocate this responsibility to the Central Government. At one time, it was thought that this function could be assigned to the programme implementation ministry, which probably was not the bad idea. From the regional perspective, the two most important things that need to be given top priority are: development of communications —— railways, roads, air services and telecommunications; and development of power. In Arunachal and Mizoram, we can still hear distances between two places being described not in terms of miles but in terms of number of days it would take to walk, that too in the culminating years of the 20th century. A regional short-haul fuel-efficient airline is a must. The present facilities are totally unreliable and inadequate. Development of waterways, particularly accessing through Bangladesh to Calcutta and Chittagong ports, will be a great advantage to the North-Eastern States. From Agartala, the nearest railroad, across the border, which can transport the goods to the Chittagong port is five kilometre away. From the southern tip of Tripura, the Chittagong port is only 75 km away. Otherwise, goods from Tripura have to travel 1720 km to Calcutta port. Meghalaya sees a great future in Indo-Bangladesh trade. Once the border trade is open, Mizoram would like to access the Chittagong port through its traditional routes, the Karnaphuli river. Similarly, Manipur and Mizoram are looking for border trade with Myanmar. Arunachal is also looking for such trade with China and Tibet through Tawang.

The North-East region is blessed with an abundance of hydro-power potential, coal, oil, gas and timber. No other states have so much potential of a varied nature. Power from the North-East can feed industrialisation not only in the North-East, but also Bangladesh and eastern India, up to Uttar Pradesh. It will also provide a proper hydro-thermal mix to balance the system. When availability of power is such a big problem in many states, with the cheaper power of the North-East, industrialisation in the region can be facilitated. Since the cost of giant hydro-power projects is very high and lumpy, the Centre should provide guarantees to private investors.

As for the region’s own strategy of development, I have said a number of times, and would like to say again that primary focus should be given to agriculture and allied services like horticulture, fishery, livestock and floriculture. At the present moment, the productive sectors like agriculture are showing a negative trend in several states. Manufacturing is almost non-existent. The only sector that is growing is the service sector, mainly government employment and transport, which is unsustainable in the long run without a commensurate growth in the productive sectors. For lack of proper understanding of regional development and by merely following the Planning Commission directions, the states have got their priorities wrong and spend much less in the agriculture sector, which has the highest potential for growth. Assam, for example, spends three per cent of its total budget on agriculture. This is ludicrous. Its five thousand government servants in agriculture and four thousand gram sevaks (village level workers) remain without much work. If three crops can be grown, together with development of cash crops in horticulture, of fishery and livestock, Assam, and for that matter, the whole of the North-East can be transformed in a relatively short period of time. These surpluses themselves will engineer industrialisation. Industries based on available raw materials within the region should be promoted for cost effectiveness. And there is plenty of such raw materials within the region. Such industries based on oil, gas, coal, limestone, granite, timber, sericulture and other forest-based raw materials should be given priority.

It is not the existence of this missionary school of this stature in a place like this but standards and quality education of St. Anthony’s, Gossaingaon, compared to any leading missionary school of the country, could be a surprising factor. Established in 1984, the school was initially run and managed by the Reverend Bishop of the Diocese of this circle. The school is a co-educational institution having a total strength of approximately 1300.

The students appear for the Assam Board exams while passing out from here. Four batches have come out with cent per cent results.

Father Matthew Kottaram is the principal of the school and commands love and respect from all the teachers and students alike. Being a devout Christian, his time is spent looking into matters of the Diocese and the school. Assisting him in the affairs of the school is Sister Jenesia. In fact, it is she who supervises the overall functioning of the school. Having the right balance of sharpness, prudence and tenderness, she sets an example for all the staff and students of the school by virtue of his astute devotion to her job. Simple and hardworking, heads a band of 30 odd teachers who all are qualified and well versed with their job.

The school also has limited hostel facilities. It can board about 130 boys in the boys hostel and 50 students in the girls’ hostel. For poor students, the stay at hostels is free. The same can be said about the school fees.

The students have to face round the year exams in the form of quarterly, monthly and unit-tests, the results of which are aggregated during the Annual exams. In terms of ambience, facilities and opportunities, the school provides a perfect ground to the students to have and nurture their talents.

There is a well furnished library and students are made to inculcate the habit of reading quality books from their tender age. Computer education with the help of specialised teachers is imported and so is the knowledge of painting and stitching. The school has a very well-equipped science laboratory.

Apart from the main school building, and the boys and the girls hostels and the administrative block the school has a football field. In the main field itself there are basketball, volley ball and badminton courts. A very well-equipped dispensary provides free medical aid to the adjoining slums dwellers.

The students and the teachers work together to organise a gala annual function every year. Celebrated with lots of enthusiasm. A number of ‘Feast Days’ are held in which the school arranges for a sumptuous lunch for all its teachers and students. The school also organises cultural meets, sports meets and tournaments to generate interest and inculcate the feeling of competitiveness and to nurture the latent talent of the pupils. By the beginning of next year a special tailoring and waring school will come up and impart training, basically to young girl students in the evening.