New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS): Echoing the "Congress-mukt (free) North East" slogan, BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday expressed confidence that the party-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) will form governments in the remaining three of the eight states in the region.
Addressing the second NEDA conclave here, Shah said infiltration, vote-bank politics and political use of killer groups have derailed the northeast's development.
"I think we are successfully progressing towards that direction. In five of the eight states, we have Chief Ministers who are members of the NEDA. I am confident that in the upcoming elections, in all the eight states NEDA will be successful in forming the government," Shah said.
"I hope in the next annual conference all the eight chief ministers will be sitting here and NEDA represents all the eight states," he added.
Earlier, Assam's Health and Finance Minister Sharma said that NEDA is an alliance of parties which is concerned about development of the North East region and making it Congress-mukt. "We are working towards that," he asserted.
The conclave was attended by chief ministers of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland. Of the other three states, Tripura is governed by CPI-M, and Meghalaya and Mizoram by the Congress.
Shah said that nothing was done in the last 65 years for the development of the region.
The BJP chief said the party has taken many initiatives in the past three years for the development of the region and stressed on the need to unite the region culturally.
"North East's development is the government's first priority. There has been change in our policy towards the region. I am happy to say that in the past three years under Narendra Modi's leadership, the amount of work that has been done in the North East has happened for the first time after Independence. As a result of this, people from different cultures and identities, every party came together on the platform of NEDA to take forward the growth engine of the country's development," he said.
He said NEDA will not just be a political platform but it will be pious effort to connect the North East culturally, in a united form, with the whole country.
Flood, poor air connectivity and Hindi teachers’ plight: Zeliang’s NEDA menu
A statement from the chief minister’s office on Tuesday reported Zeliang as sharing the plight of 2000-odd Hindi teachers in Nagaland, whose services are on the brink of termination as per guidelines of the central government, during the meeting.
“The service of Hindi teachers in Nagaland are co-terminus with the schemes introduced in the state and this has to be rectified to secure their future while paying special attention in imparting Hindi education in the entire NE region”, the chief minister was quoted as saying.
The CMO statement also reported the chief minister as raising the issue of “disaster that took place in the state due to heavy rain and flood” recently. “Immediate attention is required considering the magnitude in terms of loss of human lives and damages caused to private and public properties alike.”
On the “sorry state of air connectivity” in Nagaland, the chief minister was reported as calling for “urgent improvement” while adding that “Visa checking system must be introduced in the NE region to ease the movement of goods and citizens across the international borders of south-east Asian countries without which tourism, trade and commerce is being hampered.”
Zeliang was accompanied by Lok Sabha MP ‘and NPF president’, Neiphiu Rio and president of NPF Manipur, Awangbow Newmai, the CMO release informed.
