Just days before the impending visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping to Gujarat, Gen (Retd) V K Singh, the Union Minister in charge of North East Region, held an informal grievance 'redressal meet' of people hailing from the six states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Manipur who are based in Gujarat, on Friday. Singh met close to 50 members of North-Eastern community including students, professionals and homemakers in the lobby of the Gujarat National Law University's guest facility, which was not open to the media. Outlining his vision for the N-E states, the Minister during his opening remarks promised 2000 MW of power via clean energy to the six states of North East by way of rural electrification, an AIIMS-like institution, skill development centers and speedy road and infrastructure development. "Things will take time, you have to trust us. In six states, clean energy will be harnessed which is not dependent on coal or gas but will be based on solar power. Rainwater harvesting measures will also be initiated. There is a World Bank funded Rural Livelihood Mission which is dormant now but we plan to make it work soon," he told the students. The Minister was in Gandhinagar to flag off GNLU's two day “India’s Foreign Relations - Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean: Strengthening the Political, Economic, Security and Cultural Prospects” where he was Chief Guest, before he met with members of the NE community. He was accompanied by Sunil Deodhar, the Poll Manager for Narendra Modi's Varanasi campaign, Sunil Trivedi who is part of BJP's state election management wing and Rajendra Singh Chandel, the National co-convenor of BJP North East cell. Speaking at the conference Singh had outlined issues of illegal trafficking of drugs, people, illegal fishing into Indian waters, illegal survey of Indian areas in a bid to start mining operations as issues that were being adressed by the new government's 'proactive foreign policy'. "A new separate hostel for people of North Eastern region will be started at Jawaharlal Nehru University soon, which will be extended to all other metros soon. This hostel will be for our own people so that it becomes slightly easier for them to stay.. We know there are issues in Assam, for which we will find a solution. While there is a small problem in Mizoram which will become big in the coming days, which is of China people coming to work at households and then staying on. Policies will be made so that things do not become illegal. If the regime becomes such, then illegal people can be take care of and identification can be done. The purpose of meeting with all of you is that you must go back home and tell your people that things are being done and that this much money is coming," he said. Outlining the meet as one to address grievances, Singh took questions from more than eight people in the meeting. Sunep C Jamir a youngster from Nagaland said, "Firstly, sensitise people of law enforcement agencies about north eastern states, who don't even know where states of Nagaland, Arunachal belong, as many think they belong to China or Nepal. Also there are preconceived notions of our culture and I want to say that just because I wear a different dress, don't treat me differently. No one wants to be an entrepreneur in Nagaland but everyone wants to get into rural government jobs because they can earn a lot of money through corrupt means." While Rebecca Kompa a law student at GNLU spoke about the ineffectiveness of the (New Land Use Policy) which was constituted in Mizoram, Sumitabha Sen, a final year student of LD College of Engineering said, "Tripura is hell because the richest man of the state died owing to lack of medical care due to Malaria. People don't go to Tripura because they think that Naxalites are there and will pose a threat to their lives. We have to change that," to which Singh quipped that Sikkim and Tripura are two of the most well-administered states in NE. " I think he (Singh) will do something as he already has experience of having being posted in these places so he knows the issues here. I don't remember any other MoS making an attempt to touch base with North Eastern community before this," said Tearoli Sangtam, a civil engineering student from Manipur. Even as Singh signed off by sharing his email id, Nirmala Sharma, an Assamese settled in the city since 14 years said," We felt nice that the Minister is making so much effort. It marks a beginning and we felt that our issues were being heard."
