From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Despite being affected by insurgency, Meghalaya remained largely peaceful throughout its history as far as communal or ethnic violence is concerned, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said on Saturday.
“This is largely because of frequent dialogues between different groups of people which the hill state has institutionalized by setting up state-level and even district-level integration councils. The councils work to develop and maintain communal and ethnic harmony, share information about threat to peace and take steps to resolve conflicts and sensitive issues,” Dr Sangma said while addressing the National Integration Council meeting here.
“All regional festivals are being celebrated peacefully,” Dr Sangma added.
The Chief Minister, however, blamed certain groups of neighboring state (hinting at Assam), who reportedly create problems for people living on the Meghalaya side of the border. He was referring to
the recent Garo-Rabha ethnic conflict which claimed many lives and destroyed property, besides displacing thousands on both side of the inter-state border.
Commenting on insurgency and drug abuse in the Northeast, Dr Sangma said unemployment is the main cause of these problems. “It is a paradox that we have a huge chunk of educated youths but they remain unemployed since they are not skilled,” he said.
Drug abuse is another problem among youths which should be taken up seriously, the Chief Minister said. “We need to recognize the magnitude of the problem and devise multipronged strategy to deal with it,” he added.
Earlier, inaugurating the meeting, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said the country has taken up security issues with its neighbours, while referring to his recent visit to Bangladesh and army action in Myanmar. “I am happy that some of our neighbours have extended cooperation which has proved helpful in controlling violence in the Northeast,” he said.
The meeting was also attended by the Union Home Minister and chief ministers of several states, Union Cabinet ministers, leaders of Opposition parties and top officials.