NE India : A victim of policy disconnect
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 28, 2014 -
DoNER Minister Dr Jitendra Singh :: Pix - TSE
The disconnect or contradiction between ground reality and statistics as reflected in DoNER Minister (Independent Charge) Dr Jitendra Singh’s statement is simply indigestible, at least in the context of Manipur, if not for the whole North East region.
The other day Dr Jitendra Singh was claiming in the Lok Sabha, “Also due to continued focus on development of the region by NE States supplemented by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Planning Commission and other Central Ministries has led to substantial improvement in intra-regional connectivity, social and other physical infrastructure and capacity of human resources.”
Again he informed all the parliamentarians that the Government of India has focused on expeditious and time bound completion of major infrastructure projects of Rail, Road, Telecom, Inland Water Transport, Airports and Power in the North Eastern region.
The DoNER Minister was not totally wrong and of course there were truths in his statements.
But during the question hour, the same DoNER Minister went on record that with over 700 ongoing development projects getting delayed in the Northeast, Government is contemplating setting up a committee of MPs to monitor such schemes in the region.
A comparative study of these statements reveals a wide chasm or a sharp contradiction. When more than a staggering 700 ongoing projects are being delayed, the government has no moral authority to claim that it continuously focused on development of the Northeast region.
If the DoNER Ministry takes only the official statistics as the holy truth, just compare the per capita power consumption of the North East region with the rest of the country.
Per capita power consumption figure is one of the key elements for determining human development index of a particular state or region. This would clearly reveal the pathetic position of the North region in terms of power and other social infrastructure.
The same story applies to connectivity too. Just look at Imphal-Jiribam highway. Even after decades of taking over the responsibility of developing the highway, BRO still cannot make the road a highway worth its name.
Given these ground realities, one cannot help questioning the DoNER Minister’s bold claim of ‘substantial improvement’.
Yes, many development projects including construction and expansion of roads are being implemented across the region but they are too little and too late.
For too long, the Government of India neglected the region and blamed the region’s underdevelopment on its geographical features such as land lockedness, hilly terrain, remoteness etc.
But the whole notion about the North East region underwent a dramatic change once New Delhi mandarins realized the necessity to engage with ASEAN countries economically and politically.
Suddenly, the region’s highly disadvantageous location became a hotspot of opportunities.
In another word, there was a disconnect in New Delhi’s policy with regard to the North East region, and this policy disconnect is largely responsible for the vast disparity between the region and other parts of the country.
Now the Government of India is actively pursuing a Look East Policy and if viewed from this perspective, the DoNER Minister made no mistake when he said that the North East region has huge opportunities to emerge as major manufacturing, trading and logistic hub for trade with the ASEAN region.
But the bitter truth is, a lot more needs to be done, that too expeditiously without bureaucratic or political hassles in order to tap the potential and opportunities provided by the region’s geographical location.
Whatever claims or reports the Government of India and the respective State Governments made about the region’s economic and social infrastructure, the ground reality tells a very different story, and we don’t like the elected representatives to be misled by official statistics nor do we like the elected representatives to befool the mass based on official statistics.
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