SHILLONG: Tura MP and National People’s Party president, Conrad Sangma on Thursday expressed concern that the North Eastern Council (NEC) had been reduced to a mere funding agency.
He was delivering a speech during the inaugural function of the two-day international seminar on “Cross border connectivity and inclusive growth: Possibilities and challenges with special reference to North Eastern region was organized on Thursday by Shillong College.
He said that the budget for the NEC has remained at Rs 700 crore since the time of its inception which, he observed, was very less for an agency which looks after the development activities of the North Eastern states.
Stating that the NEC used to be the think tank and regional planner for the North East, he said, “What was NEC meant for in the beginning? It was meant to formulate a policy road map.”
Sangma also turned the audiences’ attention to climate change which has led to rise in temperatures, floods etc. Pointing to the flood situation as seen in some parts of the North east, he said, “Are we ready to deal with water borne diseases?”
Referring to the areas of concern pertaining to the youth, he observed that think tank, policy makers, should interact with the youth.
Expressing concern that there is no necessary infrastructure available, he said that India had 25 million youth going to universities and set a target to have 45 million youth to attend universities by 2030.
Mahendra P. Lama, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and High End Expert, Sichuan University, China gave a speech on ‘Border to Borderland: Relocating connectivity in North East, wherein he stated that border interaction was fast becoming critical and that the character and contents of border regime were changing.
Pointing out that out of 29 states, 17 provincial states of India have international borders; he said that India had 15106.7 km of land border and a coastline of 7516.6 km.
Stating that North Eastern Region (NER) has open, naturally fenced, porous, barbed wire and concrete built border, Lama said, “In a place like Daoki (Dawki) in Meghalaya, thechanawalas and jhalmuriwalas who stand in no man’s land in Bangladesh are the political borders.”
As for NER, he said, “Eight states of NER constitute 7.9 per cent of India’s total geographical area, 3.76 per cent of total national population and hardly 2.8 per cent of the national income.”
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