DoNER not to be abolished, PM assures NESO
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network

Dimapur, May 08 2013: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has assured today the delegation of North East Students Organisation (NESO) that the Ministry for Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) will not be abolished.

The Prime Minister also said he fully endorses the desire and the sentiment of the people on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

The NESO team urged the Prime Minister to repeal the AFSPA besides, apprising him not to abolish the DoNER ministry.

A 10-member NESO team met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today in New Delhi in connection with the proposed abolition of the Ministry for Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER).

Former NESO advisor S Artax told Newmai News Network this evening that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had assured the NESO delegation that DoNER ministry will not be abolished.

During the meeting this afternoon, NESO leaders had apprised the Prime Minister to restructure and strengthen and also to make it more accountability the DoNER ministry instead of abolishing it and to which the Prime Minister has assured to do so.

It is worth mentioning here the NESO team had left Guwahati for New Delhi on May 7 to lobby that the DoNER ministry is not abolished.

"We also met the chairman of the North East MPs Forum this morning on the matter," some NESO leaders said.

They also said the NESO delegation will also meet Opposition leaders and several Central leaders to apprise them on issues prevailing in the North East region.

It can be noted here that the Parliamentary Panel had made scathing attacks on performance of the DoNER Ministry saying that the ministry had failed to live up to the expectation.

The Parliamentary Panel further said the dismal performance of the DoNER ministry has been the reason that it had pointed out in its report to abolish the ministry.

The Parliamentary Panel had recently recommended that government should consider the handicaps and devise ways out either by placing the DoNER Ministry directly under the Prime Minister's Office or evolve mechanism so that the Ministry could implement its decisions.

However, the talks of abolishing the DoNER ministry have been going on since the year 2008 .

In 2008, the meeting of North Eastern Council (NEC) in Agartala on May 12 where the eight chief ministers of the North Eastern states had strongly advovated and opposed the proposed abolition of DoNER Ministry. Also in the year 2008, the government of India had constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into the recommendation by a reforms panel to abolish the Ministry for Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER).

The second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), headed by former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader M.Veerappa Moily, had recommended to do away the DoNER ministry.

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