SHILLONG, JULY 11 Union home minister Rajnath Singh said that the union government is concerned over mushrooming of splinter groups in Garo hills whose sole objective is kidnapping for ransom or looting traders at gunpoint ad made it amply clear that the centre would not talk to such criminal elements.
Singh stated this during a meeting with the northeastern states chief ministers held at Guwahati on Saturday to discuss security-related issues, including development of the region, counter insurgency operations and inter-state boundary issues.
Besides the chief ministers of seven northeastern states, union minister of state for DoNER, Jitendra Singh, union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju, union minister for sports & youth affairs Sarbananda Sonowal, union home secretary, chief secretaries and DGPs were also present in the meeting.
Chairing the meeting, Singh said that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss as to how to ensure peace and security in the region, saying strong and close coordination between the centre and the states is need for accelerated development of the region.
Expressing concern the mushrooming of splinter groups in Garo Hills “whose objective is kidnapping for ransom or looting traders at gunpoint”, Singh made it absolutely clear that the centre would not talk to such criminal elements.
Singh also emphasized that now time has come to think, plan and deliver on “people-centric security” apart from “insurgency-centric security” and urged upon the chief ministers of the region to concentrate on development and security of the people living along International borders, tighten vigil along Indo-Bangla border and strengthening of police stations in the border areas. He also expressed concern over marked increase in low-visibility yet high-impact violent crimes in Assam and Meghalaya and called for special investigation cells to tackle cases of extortion and kidnapping for ransom.
Singh urged upon the chief ministers to launch sustained drives against illegal weapons and make the region free from such illegal arms. While welcoming the misguided youths who have joined insurgency to the mainstream, Singh, however, said that those who have committed heinous crimes and terror acts must face the law, stressing “we have zero-tolerance policy on insurgency”.
On boundary disputes between states like Assam and Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal, Assam and Nagaland and between Tripura and Mizoram, Singh urged the chief ministers to resolve them mutually and ensure that under no circumstances such disputes develop into active tensions. He also assured them of Home Ministry’s assistance if they so decide, adding that status quo must be maintained by the concerned states till the dispute is solved amicably.
Singh also stressed the need to plan and reduce deployment of security forces so as to make the environment easy to encourage positive thinking of outsiders about the region and urged upon the Chief Ministers to have a realistic audit on deployment of central armed police forces in their respective states.
Stating that border guarding is one of the prime concerns of the centre, Singh asked the chief ministers concerned to provide land for border fencing and expedite land acquisition on urgent basis wherever pending. Maintaining that the region is a high intensity seismic zone and also prone to devastating floods, he informed that the ministry has sanctioned one more battalion of NDRF for the northeast and urged the chief ministers to always keep their State Disaster Response Force in readiness and upgrade their Disaster Management capabilities.
Taking advantage of the presence of Union Minister of State for DoNER, the meeting also took time to discuss on the developmental issues in the region, where in minister Jitendra Singh announced new innovative steps being taken by the Ministry to bring mainstream India closer to Northeast including “DoNER at Doorstep” initiative, creating a roster for union ministers to visit the region alternately, setting up of Help Desk in Delhi to promote entrepreneurs and investors to come to Northeast, earmarking of Rs. 125 crore for Organic Mission, and for the first time in India’s history, starting a post-graduate course in Northeast Studies.
Jitendra Singh also said that the ministry would study and decide on restoring Special Category Status as sought by most of the northeast states chief ministers.- By Our Reporter
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