Department of Information and Public Relations

Press Release No. 483/15

RAJNATH SINGH DISCUSSES SECURITY RELATED ISSUES WITH NE CMS

Shillong, July 11, 2015: Union Home Minister held a meeting with the Chief Ministers of Northeastern states at Guwahati today to discuss security-related issues, including development of the region, counter insurgency operations and inter-state boundary issues.

Besides the Chief Ministers of seven North-eastern states, Union Minister of State for DoNER, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister for Home, Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister for Sports & Youth Affairs, Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Home Secretary, Chief Secretaries and the DGPs also participated in the meeting.

Chairing the meeting, the Union Home Minister said that the purpose was to ensure peace and security in the region, saying strong and close coordination between the Centre and the States is need for accelerated development of the region. Expressing concern the mushrooming of splinter groups in Garo Hills “whose objective is kidnapping for ransom or looting traders at gunpoint”, he made it absolutely clear that the Centre would not talk to such criminal elements.

He also emphasized that now time has come to think, plan and deliver on “people-centric security” apart from “insurgency-centric security” and urged upon the Chief Ministers of the region to concentrate on development and security of the people living along International borders, tighten vigil along Indo-Bangla border and strengthening of police stations in the border areas. He also expressed concern over marked increase in low-visibility yet high-impact violent crimes in Assam and Meghalaya and called for special investigation cells to tackle cases of extortion and kidnapping for ransom. He also urged upon the Chief Ministers to launch sustained drives against illegal weapons and make the region free from such illegal arms. While welcoming the misguided youths who have joined insurgency to the mainstream, the Union Home Minister however said that those who have committed heinous crimes and terror acts must face the law, stressing “we have zero-tolerance policy on insurgency”.

On boundary disputes between states like Assam and Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal, Assam and Nagaland and between Tripura and Mizoram, Rajnath urged the Chief Ministers to resolve them mutually and ensure that under no circumstances such disputes develop into active tensions. He also assured them of Home Ministry’s assistance if they so decide, adding that status quo must be maintained by the concerned states till the dispute is solved amicably.

The Union Home Minister also stressed the need to plan and reduce deployment of security forces so as to make the environment easy to encourage positive thinking of outsiders about the region and urged upon the Chief Ministers to have a realistic audit on deployment of Central armed police forces in their respective states. Stating that border guarding is one of the prime concerns of the Centre, he asked the Chief Ministers concerned to provide land for border fencing and expedite land acquisition on urgent basis wherever pending. Maintaining that the region is a high intensity seismic zone and also prone to devastating floods, he informed that the Ministry has sanctioned one more battalion of NDRF for the Northeast and urged the Chief Ministers to always keep their State Disaster Response Force in readiness and upgrade their Disaster Management capabilities.

Taking advantage of the presence of Union Minister of State for DoNER, the meeting also took time to discuss on the developmental issues in the region, where in Dr. Jitendra Singh announced new innovative steps being taken by the Ministry to bring mainstream India closer to Northeast including “DoNER at Doorstep” initiative, creating a roster for Union ministers to visit the region alternately, setting up of Help Desk in Delhi to promote entrepreneurs and investors to come to Northeast, earmarking of Rs. 125 crore for Organic Mission, and for the first time in India’s history, starting a Post-Graduate course in Northeast Studies. He also said that the Ministry would study and decide on restoring Special Category Status as sought by most of the Northeast Chief Ministers.

Press Release No. 484/15

CENTRE NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF NE PROBLEMS

Shillong, July 11, 2015: Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma has stated that there was a need to understand the complexities of the problems of the Northeastern states and called for integrated approach by all the State governments to address the issues affecting development in the region.

Participating in the meeting of the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh with the Chief Ministers of Northeastern states on Saturday, Dr. Sangma highlighted the factors like presence of long porous international borders, easy access to sophisticated arms and limited resources that have compounded the problem of insurgency in the region and said immediate interventions using technology were required to tackle the problem.

“The northeastern states are fighting a war everyday against anti-national forces with limited resources”, he said.

He also said that the issues raised by the Union Home Minister were linked to internal security and stressed the need to strengthen the states. He also called for intelligence sharing among the States to fight militancy in the region.

On inter-stated boundary dispute between Assam and Meghalaya, the Chief Minister stressed the need to build up complete political consensus and adopt a mechanism where there is no blame game. He informed the meeting that the State has already started engaging all political parties to work out a solution to the contentious boundary issue with Assam so as to end the miseries of the people living in the border areas.

He also brought up the issue of poor condition of roads in the border areas, some of which are national highways. There is a need to improve and develop the roads in the border areas but where is the funds going to come from, he said and emphasized the need for engagement with the Ministry of Finance in this regard. “We need to generate hope among the people because when people lose hope, we will have more enemies”.

Besides the security related issues, sustained counter insurgency operations in the State, ANVC peace settlement, strengthening of State Police, requirement of funds for developmental projects which are critical to security were among other issues placed by the Chief Minister before the meeting.