Kohima: The Centre is working with various stakeholders to find out a “workable solution” to the vexed Naga political problem, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Monday.
Nagaland has its problems because of which the Centre has entered into an agreement of peace (with NSCN-IM) and suspension of operations has been ordered, he said.
With the Centre trying to reach out for a settlement, Shinde said, he has met the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur to bring about a solution to the issue.
Shinde said the Centre and the NSCN-IM (National Socialist Council of Nagaland Isak-Muivah) along with Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and his colleagues were trying to find out a “workable solution” so that peace could be brought back in the state.
“We’ll bring peace in this part of the region,” he said, adding that there should not be any insurgency in the state and people should be able to live peacefully.
Addressing a series of election rallies for the Congress candidates in Kohima, Peren and Mokokchung districts, Shinde said “If there is no peace in the state that becomes a major problem for development…if there is insurgency you cannot develop and cannot have peace in the state,” he said.
Noting that the projects under the Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojana should have been over by 2012 in all the villages of the country, Shinde said money was sent to Nagaland but nothing was done in the state.
If the situation exists like this then Nagaland is not going to prosper, he said, adding that development can be achieved by harnessing power, education and industries.
Shinde said a Congress government alone will be able to give the Naga people “full-fledged development”, and cited that the growth rate of India, when Congress-led UPA government came into power, was barely 2.5 per cent but the party managed to take it to 9 per cent three years back.
Maintaining that the Congress wants the states to be strong, he said, “This is the right opportunity for the Naga people to make the change in government. “It is upto you to bring the change and vote for Congress candidates to have better development and brighter future,” he said.
“An opportunity has come to you now to throw the government and the NPF party (out of power),” he said while assuring that Congress, if voted to power, would bring “actual development” which had been stalled by the National People’s Front government during the last 10 years. “We have to build the future for the younger generation. We have to build up the nation and as a part of the nation building work (you) elect the Congress candidates in the ensuing elections,” Shinde appealed to the mass. (PTI)
