Two-day North East festival inaugurated in national capital
New Delhi: “The Northeastern region is by and large peaceful and investors should come to the region with opening of the trade and commerce with neighbouring countries,” Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said on Friday.
Addressing the inaugural function of the ‘North-East Festival: Connecting People, Celebrating Life’ here on Friday, the Chief Minister observed that the Northeast, by and large, is peaceful and stable but some quarters are painting the entire region as disturbed, which is not true with only few pockets of violence dissuading both the investors and tourists. The market in rest of the country is far from the region and therefore efforts should be made to develop trade relations with adjacent countries, he suggested.
“It is important for the Northeast states to unite and come together supporting each other. It is important to showcase the region in totality,” he said.
The inaugural function was attended, among others, by Union DoNER Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar, Nagaland Urban Development Minister TR Zeliang, Editor-in-chief of Times Now Arnab Goswami, besides former ULFA leader Shashadhar Choudhury.
Identifying lack of communication as the root cause of underdevelopment of the Northeastern Region, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia said establishing connectivity in the region should be the primary focus of the Central Government.
“To address all the problems of the region I have proposed a meeting with the Prime Minister on this on November 20 wherein we will discuss issues of the region and the government’s plan to resolve them,” Dr Ahluwalia said.
Addressing the meeting, the DoNER Minister said that despite the fact that the per-capita plan outlays of the Northeastern states have, over a period of time, been considerably higher than the national average, the states still rank significantly below the national average in so far as infrastructure development is concerned.
“In terms of per-capita State Domestic Product or other development indices, such as power, length of roads or number of hospital beds, the North East ranks well below the national average. Though the literacy levels are higher than the national average, vocational training and entrepreneurial skills remain grey areas. Things in all the spheres are changing positively in the region but substantial efforts needs to be made consistently,” he said.
Addressing the function, Arnab Goswami, who hails from the region, said that the MPs of the Northeast are strength in themselves and they should speak about issues concerning the region. “But it has not happened. The North East MP’s Forum can become a major force,” he observed.
Speaking about the festival the organiser in chief, Shyamkanu Mahanta, said their Northeast Festival was distinct from others, as they have tried to bring in participants from all the eight Northeastern States besides hosting some ‘serious’ discussions on core issues.