Centre keen to see fast development of NE states — Advani

Talking to reporters in the Raj Bhawan here, Advani said he is visiting different North Eastern states to closely monitor their problems and initiate appropriate action.

"North Eastern states come under special category. Therefore, 90 per cent of their expenditure is met as grants and the rest 10 per cent as loans," he stated. In case of plan allocation, 70 per cent is given as loan and the rest as grants for the rapid development of the area. In addition, funds were available from non-relapsable pool of various Central ministries and the North Eastern Council, the Home Minister added.

Asked whether the Union government will set up a separate ministry to deal with the North Eastern states, Advani said it was not necessary as all the Central ministries were keen to undertake responsibilities for the rapid development of the region.

Regarding insurgency in the region, he said it was being steadily contained through the measures adopted by the Centre and the state governments in recent times. "The violence graph has come down and more importantly, the people of the region are not cooperating with the militant groups."

He said most of the neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal were helping New Delhi to combat insurgents in their areas and recently, Myanmar cracked down on insurgent groups operating from there.

Asked about the inflow of infiltrators from Bangladesh, the Home Minister said various measures have been adopted, including fencing of borders, opening of more check posts to contain the inflow.

As regards the deletion of IMDT Act in Assam, he said consensus with other parties could not be built up to do so. The policy of BJP on IMDT was well known.

Referring to recent killing of Sikhs in the Kashmir Valley, Advani said it has boomeranged on Pakistan as their intention to internationalise the issue during Clinton’s visit did not work. Rather, it highlighted the ill intention of cross border terrorism abetted by Pakistan.

"We will tackle cross border terrorism by ourselves and at the same time, corner Pakistan in the international arena for its nefarious designs," he asserted.

Asked about the demand for Union Territory status for Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh, he said the private member’s bill was defeated in the State Assembly, so there was nothing to say about it.

The Home Minister said anti-National activities in those two districts would be dealt with firmly. "However, the state government should see that the area does not remain underdeveloped giving chance to anti-nationals to raise their ugly heads."

To deal with the situation, the Centre had decided to modernise the state police force and various inputs were being given to them to tackle the situation more effectively, he said.

Of the eight North eastern states, including Sikkim, four of them were quite peaceful. These included Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim while situation in Assam, Tripura, Nagaland and Manipur was disturbed.

Asked about the arrest of NSCN (I-M) Leader T Muivah by the government of Thailand, Advani maintained that it was the prerogative of a country to apprehend a person if he flouted the rules of that country. As far as peace talks were concerned, they would continue as per schedule.

The Home Minister said he had received a memorandum from the state government highlighting the demands for more hydel projects, re-introduction of panchayati raj system, a new forest policy for the State, improvement of telecom facilities and more road network. He assured that he would definitely take up these issues with various ministries and see that they were earnestly implemented.

He also claimed to have held "very purposeful interactions" with the representatives of All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union, All Nyishi Students Union, Arunachal Chamber of Commerce and MLAs belonging to Tirap and Changlang districts.

Meanwhile, official sources here said that the Home Minister’s proposed Tawang visit has been cancelled due to inclement weather. He left for Yazali in Lower Subansiri district to visit the site of the 405 MW Rangan Adi Hydel project being constructed by North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation, on his way to Guwahati.