Arun Jaitley speaks for North East
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 04 2012:
Taking serious note of the mysterious deaths of loitam Richard at Bangalore and Meghalaya's Dana Sangma in Gurgaon recently, BJP MP and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley prevailed upon the Union Home Minister to ensure safety and security of people from the North East.
specifically mentioning the two cases and acknowledging grievances of North East students studying in Delhi as well as those working in the national capital when they were allegedly profiled and picked up by the police in the run up to the BRICS Summit, during his speech on the issue of racial profiling faced by the students from the North East in Rajya Sabha today, Arun Jaitley informed the House that people of region feel alienated due to distant location of the North Eastern States.
Because of the carving out of East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh, the North East moved away almost a thousand kilometres in terms of distance, consequently impacting developmental activities in the North-East, stated the BJP MP, who also asserted that despite efforts of various Governments, North-East has not grown in the same manner in which the rest of the country has.
North-East also has a genuine complaint that certain Central Schemes and projects are endeavoured to assist them and various things have not really lived up to the mark, he maintained and grimly noted absence train service, with the exception of Assam, where too, the big issue is conversion of meter gauge into broad gauge, particularly to the Barak Valley.
"We have a highway project going on successfully in the rest of the country, but the Mahasadak Yojana which was to really extend beyond West Bengal into the North-East, is progressing in a lethargic pace," he said.
The educational infrastructure in the North-East has also suffered subsequently leading to students from North East scattering at different cities to pursue studies, Jaitley conveyed.
while students from the region leaving their home States due to absence of basic educational infrastructure is unfortunate there is a sliver lining in this, said the former Union Minister by referring that interaction of the north East students with the rest of the country is contributing to national integration and helping others in understanding what their problems are.
one recent study indicated that between 2005 and 2010, the number of people migrating for jobs from the North-East went up about 12 times, he informed and describing the North East people, particularly the students as extremely charming personalities, polite, humble, very eager to Interact with the rest of the people, strongly advocated that they have to be made to feel wanted in the rest of the society.
"They have left a great impact in educational institutions to which they belong.
But, at the same time, most of them want to have the benefit of higher education institutions of quality in other parts of the country" .
"They want their educational profile and personalities to evolve and then they want to be a part of this great growth story which we talk about in the rest of the country" .
We have to admit and it is a genuine admission which everybody has to make that the growth in those regions has not been at the pace at which we would have expected it to be" .
"Therefore, in search of education, in search of better quality employment, they have moved to different parts of the country" .
Quoting the Union Home Minister's comment, "l wish to categorically state that any citizen belonging to the North-Eastern States is free to travel and reside in any part of the country.
They have a right to security and peace," he affirmed that people of north East also have a right to live free from any form of discrimination from any form of racial profiling.
"They have the rights to enjoy the fruits of development which in several other parts of the country people have now begun to enjoy, though to a limited extent" .
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