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North East : Chief Ministers to promote national unity, seek more funds |
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North East Chief Ministers have urged the Union Government to release more funds for the troubled region to enable them to promote national unity.
Speaking at the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting in New Delhi on August 31, the Chief Ministers gave accounts of the situation prevailing in their respective states and the measures needed to maintain communal harmony and strengthen integration with the mainland.
Briefly outlining the steps that the Assam government has planned for national integration, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said, “For implementation of these schemes, we require more funds. On the one hand we lack resources and on the other, the potential of the problems facing the state is such that it needs to be addressed expeditiously.”
Gogoi did not miss the opportunity to reiterate his commitment to protect minorities in the aftermath of the repeal of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act. He said district-level national integration committees were being constituted and a series of programmes planned by the state-level national integration committee. This will include financial assistance to the poor, cultural exchange programmes, documentaries and sports competitions.
The theme of the NIC meeting, which was convened after 13 years, was “Communal Harmony Role of Government, Education and Media.”
All the Chief Ministers stressed the need to promote education and underscored the crucial role that the media could play in promoting harmony.
Speaking on the occasion, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, stressed that utmost importance be given to the basic issues of food, shelter, illiteracy, disease and unemployment if strife was to be rooted out and integration promoted.
Mizoram calls for region-specific yardstick
Politicians, bureaucrats and experts in Mizoram have called for a region-specific yardstick to assess the development needs of the Northeast.
The major part of the region in general and Mizoram in particular is made up of rugged hills, steep slopes and deep gorges, which makes the task of development planners difficult.
Chief minister Zoramthanga had recently rued that the Centre refuses to understand the fact that developing a difficult, mountainous area like Mizoram needs much more funds and planning than developing the plains. The Centre’s stringent guidelines, especially for infrastructure development, cannot be met and are not applicable for the local requirement where the terrain is very difficult, he pointed out.
There are more than a hundred different centrally-sponsored funding systems on which we mainly rely to develop the area on par with the plains. But unfortunately, these funds are used up half-way through because of costly transportation and processing charges, he said.
The Mizoram Chief Minister further said the Centre should declare and put all the states with difficult terrain under a special funding category.
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