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PM pulls up NE states for lagging behind |
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pulled up the seven north-eastern states for lagging behind in implementing the various centrally sponsored projects aimed at enhancing the development of the troubled region.
Addressing a two-day conference held in New Delhi last week to review the progress of the urban renewal mission, the Prime Minister asked all of them to work closely with the Cen¬tre. The state of Assam which Prime Minister represents in the Upper House of Parliament was particularly targeted by Dr. Singh.
Censured by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, Oct. 9, Dispur on Oct. 11 said it would do everything within its means to ensure that all the projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru Na¬tional Urban Renewal Mission were implemented effectively.
Sources said Singh’s concern on the slow progress of work under the urban renewal mission in the city had awakened the state government into action with Dispur saying that it would expedite work under the mission.
According to an MoU signed between the Assam government and the Ministry of Urban Development in January this year, the government was supposed to adopt two laws - the Community Partic¬ipation Law and the Public Disclosure Law - within six months. However, Dispur has failed to implement any of the laws so far.
The Community Participation Law stresses on participation of citizens while the Public Disclosure Law calls for dissipating information to the people.
Pranab maps road to East
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said a stra¬tegy was in the making to enable the Northeast to not only “look” but also “walk and sail east”.
Delivering the keynote address of a three-day national conference on Delhi’s Look East Policy, Mukherjee said Delhi was according priority to the region’s development and explained how the national foreign policy was being integrated into the pro¬cess.
That was about all he had time for, having to cut short his visit and return to the capital for the crucial UPA-Left meeting on the nuclear deal. “I am both sad and happy - sad because I am having to cut short this visit because of the political develop¬ments in the country and happy because this event is taking place here,” he said.
The Governor, Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai Singh, and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi were among those present at the inaugural session in a city hotel
“Innovative foreign policy is not enough to solve our prob¬lems of development and growth and a policy framework in the domestic context also has to be in place to fully exploit the opportunity presented by geography. Accordingly, modifications have been made in the Northeast Industrial Policy, 1997, with the objective of matching the aspiration levels of these states through the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Poli¬cy, 2007, after discussions with the states,” the External Af¬fairs Minister said.
Mukherjee spoke about cross-border development projects with Myanmar, the bus service linking Agartala and Dhaka and mutually beneficial power projects with Bhutan.
Those who had heard his speech at the Geography as Opportun¬ity Conference in Shillong on June 16 could not have missed the similarities. His keynote address was almost a reproduction of what he said in the Meghalaya capital.
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