Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Mukut Mithi has reiterated that the Centre should come forward in a big way to solve the insurgency problem in the North-Eastern region as the States alone could not tackle it effectively. Mr. Mithi said the Chief Ministers of all the North-Eastern states in their Shillong meeting last month had urged the Centre to declare the insurgency problem in the region as a national issue and help overcome the menace.

All the Chief Ministers had again met in New Delhi recently where a memorandum was prepared for submission to the Centre seeking effective steps to solve the problem and undertake developmental activities, he added. Expressing serious concern over "growing insurgency" in the State, Mr. Mithi said, "Recent incidents, particularly in Tirap and Changlang districts where kidnapping, extortions and other crimes had occurred have to be viewed with seriousness."

The Chief Minister said the proximity of Tirap and Changlang districts with neighbouring Myanmar and Nagaland added to the complexity of the problem with insurgent groups getting an easy access to this State. The Chief Minister also said two battalions of the CRPF, which was withdrawn from the State about five years ago, had not been redeployed and he had been urging the Centre to revamp the strength of the paramilitary forces to tackle insurgency more effectively.

Mr. Mithi said there was no justification for demanding declaration of the affected areas as ‘disturbed areas’ as both the districts were already under the purview of Disturbed Areas Act where Army and paramilitary forces had the authority to operate accordingly.