SHILLONG: The Centre has reiterated its commitment towards development of the Northeastern region “even without the special category status.”
“We have the North Eastern Council (NEC) not because of the special category status. The NEC, which is a separate concept altogether, is being strengthened and is being made more active for the overall growth of the region,” DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh said here on Tuesday.
He also maintained that the Centrally-sponsored schemes would remain unaffected whether “we have the special status or not”.
When asked whether the Centre will reconsider its decision on special category status, Singh refused to say much except “it is not strictly within the purview of the DoNER Ministry”.
“This is a separate issue altogether. No doubt, some chief ministers of the region had put forward that suggestion, the government will take an appropriate call on the matter,” Singh said.
While stating that the Northeast is a prime concern for the Centre, Singh, said that a number of new initiatives had been taken up in the last five-six months including a programme called the ‘DoNER at your doorstep’.
“From January-February onwards every month for a period of 5 or 6 days lasting up to one week, we have officials of the Ministry and if possible the ministers of Ministry of DoNER are camping in one of these days by rotation. They have already done this in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram and now Meghalaya’s turn is also due,” he said.
Adding that often it was stated that NE should be brought closer to mainland, he said that with this new initiative, they have tried to bring mainstream India closer to the region. “The message should go that for redressal of your grievance you need not travel each time to Delhi and instead Delhi can also come to your doorstep and therefore the name is DoNER at your Doorstep,” he said.
Singh also said, “In addition, every fortnight we will have in Northeast at least eight Union ministers camping and travelling to their states.
Umroi Airport: The DoNER Minister has assured that his ministry will try to remove all bottlenecks which have delayed proposed expansion of the Shillong Airport at Umroi.
He also said that Shillong deserves to have a good airport. “It is an irony it doesn’t have an airport of its own. We are going to do that,” Union DoNER Minister said.
“This also helps in bringing down the resent which also contributes to this kind of unrest and terrorism,” Union DoNER Minister said.
