Implement UF package, N-E parties urge PM

New Delhi, May 9: The North-Eastern regional parties forum has urged the Centre to implement the economic package for North-Eastern states a...

New Delhi, May 9: The North-Eastern regional parties forum has urged the Centre to implement the economic package for North-Eastern states announced by the H D Deve Gowda-led UF Government in accordance with the recommendations of the Shukla Commission.

NERPF representatives, led by Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and submitted a memorandum listing their demands here yesterday.

The forum — a representative body of regional parties like Asom Gana Parishad, United People’s Party of Assam, Arunachal Congress, Manipur People’s Party, Mizoram People’s Conference, Meghalaya’s United People’s Front, Nagaland People’s Council and Sikkim Democratic Front, asked the Centre to implement the package to bail out North-Eastern states from acute financial crunch. It also urged the Centre to solve the vexed Chakma problem in the states of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. “The Centre should take up the matter with the Bangladesh Government to take them back or make analternative arrangement for them in order to address the prevalent social tension in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh,” the memorandum said.

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Welcoming the proposal for establishing a separate ministry for the N-E, the forum appealed to the Prime Minister to expedite it.

It also demanded creation of a separate administrative zone, to be named as the fifth administrative zone, for the eight North-Eastern states with its headquarters at Guwahati.

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