SHILLONG: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday chaired the two-day plenary meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) at Shillong in Meghalaya.
The NEC is a regional planning body of eight Northeastern states. DoNER Minister, Jitendra Singh, Governors and Chief Ministers of all the Northeastern states are taking part in the meeting, being held for the first time after the Union Cabinet brought NEC under direct control of the Home Ministry.
Speaking on the occasion, Rajnath Singh said that the Union Government was taking keen interest to act as a link with the South East Asian countries so as to push economic development in the North East region. He also said that the Government was trying to ensure in all the eight States, sectors such as infrastructure strengthening, manufacturing, trade,tourism, skill development, urban renewal, smart cities, and ‘Make in India’ get emphasized.
On the law and order front, the Union Home Minister said that there was substantial improvement in security situation in North East Region in the last four years.
Whereas insurgency- related incidents have come down by 85% from its peak in late 1990s, causalities of security personnel and civilian deaths have come down by as much as 96%.Compared to the year 2013, insurgency incidents have registered a decline of 58% in 2017,” he said, adding that in last five years, security forces’ casualties have come down by 34% and civilian deaths by 67%.
He also informed that the year 2017 had the lowest insurgency incidents, security force casualties and civilian deaths since 1997 and there was marked improvement in security situation in state of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur while States of Tripura, Mizoram and Sikkim are completely free from insurgency.
“ Because of improvement in security situation, Armed Forces Special Powers Act has been removed completely from the state of Meghalaya; its application has been reduced in Arunachal Pradesh. We will discuss this subject tomorrow in detail,” he added.
Stating that the region suffers from the lack of adequate private investment, Singh said that Keeping in mind the low industrial base of the region, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister has, in March 2018, approved the North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS),2017 with financial outlay of Rs.3,000 crore upto March, 2020.